"Finished All Classes but Progress 0%"... EBS Online Class Still Struggling

Repeated Service Failures Draw Complaints from Students and Teachers
Connection Delays and Class Screen Issues Reported
Government Allocates 4 Billion Won to Build New Service

EBS Online Class Homepage Screen

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] "I completed all the lessons on EBS Online Class, but the progress rate shows 0%. At this rate, it’s better to just go to school."

Since the start of the semester, service disruptions on EBS Online Class have continued. Students and teachers are experiencing inconveniences due to various errors such as real-time class screens not appearing, connection drops, and lectures not showing up even after logging in.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye visited EBS at the end of February and again on the 5th to assess the situation and request measures, but service stabilization has yet to be achieved. As of the 8th, 280,000 people accessed EBS Online Class, with 120,000 using video classes. However, around 9 a.m. that day, connection delays occurred in the Gyeonggi, Jeonbuk, and Jeonnam regions, and normal service was restored only after an hour and a half.

The frequent errors on EBS Online Class are due to the complete overhaul of last year’s temporary service and the launch of an entirely new service. The government invested 4 billion KRW to develop the new online class over five months starting in September last year, but the tight schedule and the addition of many new features such as attendance confirmation prevented service stabilization. Deputy Prime Minister Yoo said, "Although there were shortcomings in not being able to complete it perfectly within a short period, I hope that the management system enabling 200,000 people to operate real-time interactive classes stably, which was this year’s goal, will be established."

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Federation of Teachers’ Associations from the 3rd to 4th among 741 elementary, middle, and high school teachers, only 52.2% responded that the remote learning platform they currently use is stable. Among 246 teachers using EBS Online Class, 47.5% said it was "not stable," citing convenience, menu and function stability, and video class errors as issues. In contrast, 71.7% responded positively to other platforms such as Google Classroom, showing a clear difference.

The video conferencing platform Zoom is also scheduled to become paid starting in July, leaving students and teachers feeling uncertain. The free policy for educational institution accounts will be maintained only until the end of July, and from August, schools will have to bear costs to use Zoom. Currently, with in-person classes running concurrently, the number of users is limited, but there are concerns that if COVID-19 spreads further and remote classes increase, errors may worsen.

An EBS official explained, "There has been social controversy over using foreign platforms, and cost issues could grow, so we worked to provide a domestic platform starting from the spring semester. However, it is true that the level of functions we had to guarantee was lower than planned."

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