"Yellow Bus Crisis During Peak Season... Estimated Damage Amount Reaches 600 Billion Won"

Park Heon-yeong Experiential Learning Operators Association Director YTN Interview
"50-60 Schools Cancel Experiential Learning... Severe Damage"

The Ministry of Government Legislation issued an official interpretation allowing only the use of the children's school bus, the 'Yellow Bus,' for school trips, leading schools nationwide to cancel field trips one after another. Operators of experiential learning programs have voiced their grievances, stating that "annual losses amount to about 600 billion won."

On the 15th, Park Heon-young, director of the National Federation of Experiential Learning Operators, appeared on YTN Radio's 'News King Park Ji-hoon' and said, "We are estimating the scale of the damage, and even a rough calculation shows that about 3 million children nationwide are affected by the 'Yellow Bus' issue."

Earlier, the National Police Agency announced, based on the Ministry of Government Legislation's interpretation, that for children's school trip vehicles, instead of charter buses, only children's school buses painted entirely yellow must be used. However, as schools nationwide have been unable to secure the limited number of 'Yellow Buses' and have consequently canceled school trips one after another, confusion continues among the charter bus industry and experiential learning facility operators.

Chartered bus. The photo is not related to any specific expression in the article. Photo by Yonhap News.

Park, who operates experiential learning centers in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, and Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, stated, "This is actually the most important peak season," adding, "At our learning centers alone, about 10,000 cancellations have occurred." The losses due to cancellations have reached 400 million won. Park said, "In terms of the number of schools, roughly 50 to 60 places have canceled so far," and added, "Because so many cancellations have concentrated in such a short time, the damage is currently severe."

Park also said, "Local small business owners are also suffering losses, so if we try to estimate all of this, it becomes an event with enormous economic ripple effects," and added, "There are people who bought about 3,000 pyeong (approximately 9,917 square meters) of space at a sweet potato mart to operate a sweet potato learning center but now have to close everything and are crying; the damage is very serious."

However, legally holding parties responsible for cancellations is difficult under current circumstances. Park said, "We are currently considering responses at the federation level, such as imposing cancellation fees," but added, "In reality, most small to medium-sized experiential learning centers usually make verbal contracts with schools, and even if contracts exist, it is difficult for small and medium-sized operators like us to seek damages from schools."

Regarding the government's stance to prevent on-site confusion by stating that "field trips using regular buses will not be penalized," Park said, "The response was actually very lukewarm and somewhat delayed," and added, "It seems like the Ministry of Education issued this notice just to avoid responsibility. Why declare the law as illegal but then shift the responsibility onto teachers on the ground? Because of this backlash, teachers are canceling everything."

Park said, "More than 90% of the reservations have been canceled, and even if we try to salvage the remaining reservations, the damage cannot be recovered," and added, "We hope to be given practical measures to restore the damage, and we hope the Ministry of Education will come up with countermeasures regarding the necessity of experiential learning and the need to regularly conduct such learning."

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