Ministry of Education Secures Additional 164.6 Billion KRW... Support for School Quarantine and Special School Assistant Staff

Deployment of Over 3,400 Special School and Class Assistants
Support of 10,000 Quarantine Personnel and 4,000 Online Tutors

On the morning of the 2nd, when the first day of school for the 2021 academic year began for elementary, middle, and high school students, students lined up to measure their temperature before going to school at Gangbit Elementary School in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Education has secured an additional supplementary budget of 164.6 billion KRW for quarantine personnel necessary to expand in-person classes and for the online tutor project.

The Ministry of Education announced on the 25th that the first supplementary budget for 2021 was confirmed at the National Assembly plenary session.

With the supplementary budget, a new budget of 11 billion KRW was allocated to support quarantine assistant personnel for special schools. To guarantee the learning rights of students with disabilities, the Ministry plans to temporarily deploy about 3,400 assistant personnel to special schools and classes without assigned assistants to support quarantine, life guidance, and educational activities. Of the 27.5 billion KRW needed for special classes, 40% will be supported by the national treasury. Special schools are applying the principle of in-person classes up to social distancing level 2.5.

A budget of 38 billion KRW is allocated for the school quarantine personnel support project to expand in-person classes. About 10,000 personnel will be supported in kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools for school quarantine and prevention guideline enforcement in the second semester. The supplementary budget will be used to support 10,000 out of 50,000 quarantine personnel.

To address learning gaps caused by COVID-19, an 'online tutor' program will be introduced for 4th to 6th grade elementary and middle school students to provide learning supplementation and emotional support. The national treasury will support 49.8 billion KRW to expand 4,000 personnel needed for this.

Additionally, a new budget of 41.9 billion KRW was allocated to support the development of non-face-to-face university class content and materials. 3,000 specialized personnel will be deployed to support content production. The budget for work-study scholarships for 10,000 university students facing financial difficulties due to COVID-19 was increased by 25 billion KRW.

The Ministry of Education stated, "We plan to immediately proceed with budget execution procedures so that the supplementary budget confirmed this year can be swiftly supported on the ground, and we will do our best in execution management, including checking the progress of project implementation."

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