Mandatory Placement of Physical Education Instructors for 8 Sports Including Children's Soccer Classes

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Fully Implements Sports Instruction Business

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Park Yang-woo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 23rd that it has revised and fully enforced the Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rules of the "Act on the Installation and Use of Sports Facilities" (hereinafter referred to as the Sports Facilities Act) to strengthen safety and hygiene standards for 'sports instruction businesses.'

Sports instruction businesses are those that receive direct fees from users of sports facilities and provide instructional activities for children under 13 years old for 30 days or more, and are subject to reporting under Article 10 of the Sports Facilities Act.

This applies to cases involving basketball, roller skating, badminton, ice skating, swimming, baseball, jump rope, soccer, and when two or more of these eight sports are combined.

Sports instructors must be obligatorily assigned according to the number of trainees, and sports instruction is prohibited from midnight to 5 a.m. Those who previously operated sports instruction as a free business must report as a sports instruction business within one year from the enforcement date (by November 19, 2021).

When operating a school bus for a reported sports instruction business, it must be reported as a children's school bus to the local police chief, and comply with the regulations related to children's school buses under Article 53 of the Road Traffic Act, such as guardian accompaniment and activation of disembarkation confirmation devices. In addition, individuals with a history of sex crimes or child abuse-related offenses are prohibited from working as sports instruction business employees.

Safety facility standards for golf courses and swimming pools have also been newly established. Safety facilities must be installed to prevent accidents caused by flying balls and entrapment accidents on swimming pool ladders. To reduce the burden on small-scale sports facility operators, regulations on convenience facilities have been relaxed to allow shared use of changing rooms and other facilities within sports facilities.

A Ministry official stated, "We will strengthen regulations related to the safety of sports facilities and continue to ease unnecessary regulations that cause inconvenience by gathering industry opinions."

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