Chinanews, August 25. According to Korean media reports, South Korea’s Central Anti-epidemic Countermeasures Headquarters announced on the 25th that as of 0:00 local time, South Korea had newly confirmed 280 new cases of new coronary pneumonia, with a total of 17,945 confirmed cases. Recently, the epidemic has gradually rebounded, and collective infections have occurred in schools. South Korean authorities have ordered schools in the metropolitan area to start online teaching on the 26th except for the third grade. There are still 100 days before the Korean college entrance examination.
Although the number of new cases in a single day in the country has fallen below 300 for two consecutive days, the uneasiness is still spreading. Among the new cases, according to the route of infection, 264 were infected in the community and 16 were imported from abroad. In particular, the number of collective infection-related cases in Seoul’s “Love First” Church and the Gwanghwamun Assembly continued to increase, and it spread to the entire territory of Korea.
On May 20, local time, Korean high school seniors resumed classes. Plastic baffles were installed on the desks of a school in Daejeon, South Korea to prevent the spread of the virus.
On the other hand, from August 11 to 24, 150 students and 43 faculty members have been diagnosed in the metropolitan area. South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yu Eun-hye convened an emergency press conference on the 25th and stated that in view of the recent severe domestic epidemic situation in South Korea, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and special schools in the capital region will suspend the original online and offline education model from the 26th. As of September 11th, classes will start online. However, seniors who are preparing for the exam are not subject to this restriction.
It is worth noting that the 25th is the 100-day countdown for South Korea to enter the 2021 college entrance examination. Due to the rebound of the epidemic, people from all walks of life cast more worried eyes than blessing the candidates.
Some people worry that the epidemic will affect the living habits of candidates, which is not conducive to concentrate on preparing for the exam. Due to the government's mandatory suspension of large-scale cram schools for more than 300 students, many repeat students have to organize study groups or transfer to smaller classes. Some parents believe that this is more dangerous than going to a big class, and they ask the government to open up the net for repeat students.
At the same time, South Korean education circles have raised controversies about postponing the college entrance examination and reducing the difficulty of the exam questions. However, the Ministry of Education believes that it is no longer appropriate to postpone the college entrance examination, and reducing the difficulty of the examination questions may not be beneficial to the candidates. It plans to hold the college entrance examination as scheduled on December 3, two weeks later than in previous years, and the difficulty of the examination questions remains at the level of previous years.