Education Superintendent Jang Seok-woong Promises Active Support for Information-Disadvantaged Groups

Superintendent Jang Seok-woong announced the remote class operation plan through a briefing. Photo by Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] Jang Seok-woong, Superintendent of Education for Jeonnam, plans to actively implement a substantial remote class operation plan, including support measures for information-disadvantaged groups, ahead of the first-ever online school opening caused by the spread of COVID-19 infections.

On the 7th, Superintendent Jang held a policy briefing at the press room on the 2nd floor of the provincial education office building and announced the remote class operation plan for schools at all levels in response to the unprecedented online school opening.

The briefing was conducted in a non-face-to-face manner without the attendance of journalists as part of the government's nationwide 'social distancing' efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections.

Superintendent Jang said, "Jeonnam has a low dependence on private education and a high dependence on school classes, so we have prepared for the online school opening earlier than any other education office nationwide," adding, "We will prepare more thoroughly in the remaining time to carry out the unprecedented remote classes without any setbacks."

He added, "We will establish detailed support measures for information-disadvantaged groups to minimize learning gaps."

According to the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education, among the total 187,702 elementary, middle, and high school students in the province, 5,262 students (2.8%) have expressed a desire to borrow smart devices necessary for remote classes.

The education office decided to actively lend smart devices such as tablet PCs and laptops owned by schools to these students. Currently, elementary, middle, and high schools in the province possess 29,560 smart devices, so the education office believes there will be no significant issues in lending devices.

Accordingly, they secured an additional budget of 400 million KRW to urgently support communication fees for up to 70,000 KRW per student for one month for students in financial difficulty.

For students who find remote education difficult at home, such as those from single-parent families, dual-income families, grandparent-headed families, and multicultural families, schools will be encouraged to open computer labs to operate remote class rooms.

Additionally, for students with disabilities, online learning rooms will be operated according to disability types such as visual, auditory, physical, and speech impairments, and a support team of 30 to 40 special education teachers will be formed to assist their remote classes.

The emergency care classrooms for elementary students operating during the school closure period will allow participating students to attend remote classes during class hours and continue to receive care services after classes end.

In vocational high schools, practical subjects that are difficult to conduct online will be intensively completed after school reopens, while general subjects and theory-centered specialized subjects will be taught remotely using content from EBS, Edunet, and others through a 'period intensive completion system.'

Kindergartens will provide individual play kits once a week to compensate for class losses during the closure period.

Regarding remote classes, the education office has established interaction channels between teachers and students through school websites, Google Classroom, Band, and KakaoTalk. Middle schools will use EBS Online Class or Jeonnam e-Learning Center, while high schools will use both EBS Online Class and Google Classroom.

Remote classes will be conducted in three types: ▲real-time interactive ▲content utilization-centered ▲assignment-centered, and regardless of the method chosen, the unit class times will be maintained at 40 minutes for elementary, 45 minutes for middle, and 50 minutes for high schools. Written evaluations will be conducted after returning to school based on the content learned during remote classes, and performance evaluations will have adjusted ratios to ensure fairness and reduce student burden.

Furthermore, training on how to use online education platforms such as Google Classroom and ZOOM was provided to all teachers responsible for remote classes.

To finalize support and preparation for remote classes, the education office operated a 'Pilot Day (mock test)' on this day to identify shortcomings and analyze problems, and plans to check the preparation status of frontline schools for remote classes again on the 9th and 10th, the dates recommended by the Ministry of Education for 'Pilot Day.'

Superintendent Jang said, "This online school opening is a normal school opening situation except that students do not physically attend school," and added, "Students should register on various online learning sites guided by their schools and communicate with teachers to do their best in learning."

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