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Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae speaks during an emergency press conference regarding measures for facilities frequently visited by students, including after-school academies, karaoke rooms, and PC cafes at the Central Government Complex in Seoul on May 14. (Kim Bong-gyu, senior staff writer)

One of the biggest fears with the renewed spread of the novel coronavirus has come to pass: a cluster infection among school-age children. Five high school students studying under an Incheon after-school academy instructor who went a club in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood have tested positive. The instructor also passed the virus along to a fellow instructor, twins in middle school he was tutoring, and the twins’ mother. The students were diagnosed on May 13, which was the same day that third-year high school students were scheduled to return to schools. It’s chilling to think what kind of havoc it could have caused at the school had classes gone ahead as scheduled.

On May 11, the Ministry of Education (MOE) postponed the phased grade-based reopening of schools by one week for every grade, increasing the number of allowable homeschooling days for elementary school students to 34. It followed this up on May 14 with enhanced routine disease prevention measures in facilities frequently used by students, such as after-school academies and karaoke rooms, as well as emergency support for students who display suspected virus symptoms after classes resume for third-year high school students.

Stressing that the authorities are “not considering a [further] postponement of on-campus classes,” Vice Education Minister Park Baeg-beom pledged to “step up disease prevention in various ways, including holding classes every other week or day, dividing classes, and simultaneous online classes.” The measures were announced amid growing concerns about reopening schools amid second- and third-generation infections linked to the Itaewon clubs.

We certainly understand the dilemma education authorities are facing in terms of being unable to postpone the academic calendar any longer after what has amounted to a three-month hiatus. The worries of students awaiting their university entrance examinations are also something that cannot be ignored. But once the disease prevention barrier has been breached in schools, we are very likely to find ourselves all the way back at square one with everything that’s been discussed to date, including entrance exams and the academic calendar. The coronavirus issue is closely tied to student safety. The only way to avert a crisis is through airtight preparations for everything up to a worst-case scenario. We hope the MOE will decide in favor of providing students with a safe learning environment from a disease prevention perspective rather than letting the academic calendar dictate their actions.

The same day, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reiterated its call for anyone connected with the cluster infections who has not been tested to do so, stressing that it is “not too late to be tested now.” The Incheon academy instructor concealed his profession and activities during the epidemiological investigation, and he ended up infecting people around him. It’s difficult to predict how much more damage this will cause in the future. With five postponements of the reopening of schools already, a lot of people are having to bite the bullet to prevent the virus’s spread. Anyone who behaves irresponsibly and causes harm to the community under these circumstances should face stern consequences. We must not forget that disease prevention is something everybody must cooperate with if our students are to return to schools.

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