Emergency Injection of 1 Billion Won for School Disinfection and Quarantine in Seoul... Loan Support for Small Academies

Seoul City and Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Activate Student Support Measures Amid Prolonged School Opening Delays
'Uri Dongnae Care Center' Linked for Childcare... Study Cafes Sanitized by Autonomous Districts

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the start of the school year for all kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide has been postponed for another two weeks. In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and education authorities have decided to strengthen disinfection and quarantine measures for schools and academies, and provide emergency loans to small-scale academies affected by closures. They will also organically link elementary school after-school care classrooms with the city-operated Our Neighborhood Care Centers to minimize care gaps.

On the 19th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that they will implement such 'student support measures' in response to the prolonged school reopening delay.

First, to block infections within schools, the city will strengthen disinfection and sterilization of kindergarten and school facilities, allocating an emergency budget of 1 billion KRW for this purpose. This is an additional measure following the 500 million KRW support for quarantine supplies such as masks and alcohol disinfectants provided in February.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also distributed about 3.8 billion KRW last month to purchase quarantine supplies for all 1,362 schools and is supporting facility disinfection by professional sterilization companies for kindergartens. Currently, all schools have completed the first round of disinfection, and a second round is planned before the scheduled reopening on April 6.

For academies and private institutes still operating despite concerns about community infection, the Seoul Metropolitan Government continues to promote emergency loan support for small-scale academies while recommending closures through the Office of Education and strengthening facility disinfection.

There are a total of 25,231 academies and private institutes in Seoul. The Office of Education, the competent authority, has urgently allocated 1.3 billion KRW to conduct disinfection for these academies, and for 442 study cafes where many students gather, disinfection will be carried out using available resources from district health centers and local community service centers.

As the demand for childcare is expected to surge due to the school reopening delay, an organic care network between the city and the Office of Education will be established to distribute excess demand that cannot be accommodated by kindergartens and elementary school after-school care classrooms to Our Neighborhood Care Centers. Currently, the emergency care utilization rate at Our Neighborhood Care Centers is about 25%, indicating some capacity. Emergency care applications can be made through the Seoul Our Neighborhood Care Portal website (https://iseoul.seoul.go.kr/icare).

The city is also supporting loans through the 'COVID-19 Damage Emergency Management Stabilization Fund' to help small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners affected directly or indirectly by COVID-19, and small-scale academies can apply for this as well. Consultations and applications can be made through the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation (02-1577-6119), with long-term support available for up to five years at low interest rates of 1.5% to 1.8% using Seoul's SME development funds.

Additionally, as the school reopening has been further delayed, the city plans to propose to the Ministry of Employment and Labor to provide additional childcare cost support of 50,000 KRW per day for up to five days (10 days for single-parent families) to parents taking family care leave.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Seoul Education Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon stated, "While prioritizing the safety of students, the city and the Office of Education have cooperated to prepare student support measures to alleviate the anxiety of students and parents even a little. We will strengthen disinfection of school and academy facilities and minimize care gaps to respond to the prolonged delay in school reopening."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.