If Isolation Requirements Are Removed, Final Exams for Infected Students... Major Changes in School Quarantine Measures

Isolation Requirement for Confirmed Cases Ends from 4th Week of May
High Possibility of Allowing Confirmed Cases to Take Final Exams
Scope of Experiential Activities Like School Trips Expected to Expand

On the 24th, the 2022 academic year March National Joint Academic Achievement Test was conducted for 950,000 high school students from grades 1 to 3 nationwide. Third-year students at Jamsin High School in Songpa-gu, Seoul, are taking the exam. This academic achievement test is being held simultaneously nationwide on the same day for the first time in three years since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] With the social distancing measures being lifted from the 18th, significant changes are expected in school quarantine guidelines. It is highly likely that COVID-positive students will be allowed to take final exams, and the scope of permitted experiential activities will also expand.

The Ministry of Education will announce the 2022 school year recovery plan on the 20th. Prior to this, on the 18th, the Ministry held a meeting of the Omicron Emergency Response and Inspection Task Force to finalize changes related to school quarantine guidelines.

The day before, health authorities announced the end of social distancing measures that had been in place for over two years. Through a revision of the official notice on the 25th, COVID-19 will be removed from the list of "Class 1 infectious diseases," and as early as the fourth week of May, the mandatory isolation for confirmed cases will be lifted.

Standards for managing COVID-positive students in educational settings are also likely to change, including allowing them to take final exams. Previously, the Ministry of Education stated that midterm exam participation for infected students was difficult, and since isolation requirements remain until late May, midterms will not be significantly affected.

The key issue is whether COVID-positive students will be allowed to take final exams. The Ministry had previously indicated that once the isolation mandate is lifted, students could be given the opportunity to take final exams starting from the first semester of this year.

On the 14th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye said in a video conference with Jeong Eun-kyeong, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, "If the decision is made to abolish the isolation mandate for confirmed cases, we will provide students who test positive with the opportunity to take internal school exams as early as the first semester final exams this year."

Minister Yoo added, "This is essentially a very cautious judgment regarding fairness and equity in students' internal grades. If only midterm exams are allowed under the current unchanged quarantine guidelines, fairness issues will arise with second- and third-year high school students who have already received recognized grades over the past two years."

Additionally, discussions are underway regarding the scope of permitted school experiential activities and educational activities, such as school trips. Since the mask-wearing mandate will be maintained for the time being, it is difficult to predict how much the permitted scope will expand.

Minister Yoo stated, "The standards for mask-wearing indoors and outdoors will affect the range and extent of school educational activities. Since linking quarantine standards with academic affairs will have a more direct and significant impact on our students, the government needs to make careful judgments."

Since mid-April, as the Omicron variant wave has slowed, the Ministry of Education has partially eased school quarantine guidelines. Pre-attendance self-testing using rapid antigen kits will be relaxed to once a week from the 18th until the end of this month.

Contact testing criteria for confirmed cases in classrooms have also been reduced until the end of this month. Instead of testing all classmates three times within seven days, testing will be conducted twice within five days, focusing on symptomatic and high-risk students with underlying conditions.

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