[코로나 1년] Dual-income/single-parent families in’educational blind spot’ in non-face-to-face classes

Input 2021.01.19 16:59

As the coronavirus infection spread and non-face-to-face classes continued for a year, concerns about’educational inequality’ also increased. This is because the education and care functions that the school had been in charge of were not fulfilled properly, causing confusion between dual-income and single-parent families because they were unable to entrust their children, and as public education was conducted online, the proportion of private education increased.

◇ The first generation of online education… ‘School quarantine’ made by blocking school

In April last year, when the coronavirus infection spread, the educational authorities decided to conduct a non-face-to-face class after’opening online’. In May, classes began in kindergartens and elementary, middle, and high schools, but due to social distancing, overall face-to-face classes were not available, and distance classes were conducted at the same time.

In the early days of distance classes, problems such as anxiety about online access emerged, and the problem of learning gap began to emerge as a social problem. Both’e-learning center’ and’EBS online class’, a remote class platform provided by the educational authorities, had problems with access in the early stages, revealing the problem of not playing videos properly.

Elementary school students often need parental assistance to log in, check attendance, and do assignments. As remote classes revealed problems in the early stages, parents of dual-income and single-parent families had to worry that their children would not be able to take classes properly.

Teachers also agree that the educational gap will widen due to the coronavirus outbreak. As a result of a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education on elementary, middle, and high school teachers nationwide in August last year, about 80% of respondents answered that’the learning gap between students has widened.’ As the reason for the deepening of the learning gap, teachers cited’the difference in student self-directed learning ability’ (64.92%) the most. Half of the parents were found to be dissatisfied with the distance class.

Concerns about the learning gap were also confirmed in surveys of citizens. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, 96% of citizens said that they believe that a learning gap has occurred between students since the coronavirus outbreak began. Those who think that the learning gap has occurred most often cited the’difference in academic interests of individuals and parents’ (61.5%) as the cause.

Next,’differences according to the status of private education’ (51.0%),’differences in family economic conditions’ (47.9%),’differences in content of online classes by school’ (41.7%), and’expanding online classes due to partial attendance’. (29.2%),’Differences in online instructional infrastructure such as learning devices and Internet use’ (28.1%),’differences between schools and teachers’ interests’ (19.8%),’differences in school district and community atmosphere’ (15.6%), etc. In the order of.

◇ A longer’care gap’… The gap in private education widens due to the halt

As the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters upgraded its social distancing to 2.5 steps, the operation of private institutes in the metropolitan area was suspended, raising concerns about the’care gap’.

Dual-income parents with children in kindergartens or lower grades of elementary school were caught in an emergency due to the sudden shutdown of the academy. This is because the academy vehicle took the child to the academy and took them to another academy for young students who were difficult to go to school alone.

There are also concerns that low-income families or families with disabilities who are in the’welfare blind spot’ due to the caring gap due to the corona crisis will face greater difficulties.

In a survey conducted last month of 1174 parents, commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, 20.5% of all respondents said that one of the parents quit their job due to child care issues. The Human Rights Commission interpreted it as “the increased burden of care has made it very difficult for parents to maintain a living.”

Some point out that the education gap in the private education market will widen as the social distancing is strengthened by Corona. In fact, during the third coronavirus epidemic, which continued in November last year, the academy for many students was suspended due to the elevation of distance, but small-scale study groups using tutors or study cafes, which have relatively high education costs, are excluded from the regulation. There is a bar.