201207 Social Distancing Upgrades The school’s social distancing due to Corona 19 was upgraded to 2.5 stages, and measures were taken to stop all school operations to minimize winter vacation students going out. In consideration of the fact that the 2021 college entrance examination is underway, classes related to entrance examinations and vocational competency development training courses were excluded. The photo shows Daechi-dong Gakuin Street on the 7th, 2020.12.7. Maekyung DB▶ Click here for a larger view
“I don’t know how different it will be that the academy can receive one person per 8㎡. The rent costs tens of thousands of won per month, but there is nothing left to teach a small number of people.”
From the 18th, the school is allowed to resume operation. However, there is a limit of one person per 8㎡ area. Compared to the fact that less than 9 students were able to take classes at the same time, the large academies responded that “it is actually closed.” Despite the slight increase in the number of people, not only does not operate a small number of elite classes in the first place, and it is already facing a crisis situation due to rent and labor costs.
Large academies still complained that face-to-face classes are impossible for more than half of all classes due to their limited capacity. It is explained that non-face-to-face classes are inevitable unless the rules are further relaxed before February, when a large number of examinees are introduced after the on-time results are announced.
On the 15th, the school district in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, was busy even in the afternoon. This place, called’No. 1 Private Education’ because of the prestigious 8th school district and academy district, seemed to be hit by a direct hit by the corona 19 effect.
Upon entering the entrance of Academy, the official asked for body temperature measurement and QR code access authentication. I was able to go inside after completing a survey asking about my recent overseas visit history.
All classrooms at the academy were empty. Some of the instructors were taking classes in an empty classroom looking at their laptops. This is because it has been continuing non-face-to-face classes as it was included in the group banned industry due to Corona 19 last year.
As the academy class has shifted to non-face-to-face, it is also struggling to create an academic atmosphere. A academy official said, “In the past, when students came to the academy to avoid doing anything else, they rolled up their phones to study, but now they only manage attendance so that they can attend online lectures on time.” It is difficult to read the expression, and there are still many difficulties in conducting the class.” In large academies such as A, which can accommodate close to 1,000 people, it is difficult to make a big change by allowing less than 9 people or allowing one person per 8㎡.
This year, the number of recruitment for winter vacation special classes for senior high school students decreased by more than 30% compared to the previous year. When announcing that the class was made non-face-to-face, 10-20% of the class left. About half of the students came in less than in previous years.
The situation at B Academy, located in Daechi-dong, Gangnam, was similar. “The number of students has decreased by more than 50% since the Corona 19 incident,” said the director of the B Academy, saying, “In fact, it is in the test stage.”
B Academy operates about 6 centers in Gangnam-gu. The rent per center is around 30 million won per month, and when the six centers are combined, only one month rent is 180 million won. In particular, the entrance examination centers with high demand for high school 3 suffered the most damage to sales from Corona 19.
According to the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, academies that conduct non-face-to-face classes must discount some of the existing tuition fees. When taking a real-time interactive video class, 70% of the existing tuition fee should be lowered, and up to 40% in the case of playing recorded video. From the perspective of the academy, which has already reduced the number of students due to Corona 19, it is bound to have more difficulties in its operation.
The director of B academy pointed out, “From the point of view of students, they do not register for academy lectures or internet lectures, and what difference is there?”
When the management of academies and training centers was allowed to be limited, some academies that abused them were discovered to operate expediently. However, large academies argued that “it is difficult to cover even fixed costs due to expedient operation,” and argued that “the current quarantine guidelines, which are administrative and convenient, should be relaxed by reflecting the voices of the institute industry.”
Regarding this, an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said, “Fortunately, large academies have a system that allows online classes, so the possibility of violating the quarantine rules is low.” I think.”
However, the official said, “In the case of medium-sized academy, which is an intermediate step between large academies and small academies, there are cases where an online lecture system is not equipped.”
[김현정 매경닷컴 기자 [email protected]]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]