The way the government, which had been struggling between preventing the spread of Corona 19 and the academic schedule eventually took out, is online schooling.

Today (31st), the Ministry of Education announced on the 9th of next month that it will start online in order, starting with the third and third graders of high school.

Online schooling is the first in Korean history.

Not only students, parents, and teachers, but also education authorities have been able to meet the first online school without any rehearsal.

The authorities have come up with their own plans, but it's not specific, so I'm afraid there will be fewer 'blind spots'.

Above all, I am worried about a student who does not have a smart device to take an online class.

The Ministry of Education revealed only a countermeasure that said, "We will prepare smart devices and Internet support plans for education benefit recipients whose household income is below 50% of the median income, and plans to utilize the school facilities for students in rural areas and islands." .

According to the '2019 Internet Usage Survey' released by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 27th, 71.7% of households have computers, such as desktops, laptops, and tablet PCs.

In other words, 3 out of 10 households do not have computers.

There is also a large gap in computer retention by region.

In particular, Jeonnam (51.6%), Gyeongnam (58.5%), Gangwon (58.7%), and Gyeongbuk (59.0%) had less than 60% of computer holdings.

Computer retention rates vary greatly depending on income.

According to the 2018 Internet use survey, households with incomes over 4 million won had a computer retention rate of 95.5%, but households with 'more than 1 million won and less than 2 million won' and 42.9% and 16.2% respectively, respectively. There were more people who didn't have computers, such as appearing to have them.

There are some parts that statistics do not show.

If there are two students at home and only one computer, one in two cannot take online classes.

If the parents have to use computers for telecommuting, the competition for computer use becomes more intense.

Even so, the number of household members is the number of household members, and the telecommunication devices are mobile phones, but there are not many cases where students have smartphones that can take online classes.

In particular, elementary school lower grades are more often without a smartphone.

According to the 2017 Korea Media Panel survey, high school and junior high school students had smartphone retention rates of 93.5% and 92.0%, whereas elementary and high school students only 74.2% and 37.2%, respectively.

According to the Ministry of Education, there are about 130,000 smart devices that can be borrowed from each school.

Considering that there are 5.45 million elementary and junior high school students, this is not enough.

Busan Metropolitan Office of Education recently surveyed elementary and junior high and high school students, and there were 1,808 students without smart devices.

This is about 4% of Busan elementary, middle and high school students.

Given that the proportion of students without smart devices is similar across the country, it is estimated that about 200,000 students will have to borrow smart devices from schools.

Even if you have a smart device, it is a problem if you do not have a guardian who can help you take classes online.

High school students who are accustomed to taking lectures online and who are preparing for college entrance exams can take online classes on their own, but most teachers think that it is impossible for young students, especially the lower grades of elementary school, to take classes online without guardians.

Students with disabilities have several times more difficulty taking online classes than non-disabled students.

Students with developmental disabilities are virtually unable to take online classes.

Students with hearing impairments or visually impaired students can take online classes, but lack of support, such as screen commentary, greatly reduces class efficiency.

Many online classes only display textbooks on the screen and the teacher's face is not displayed. This makes it difficult for students with hearing impairments to understand what the teacher is saying because they cannot read the shape of the teacher's mouth.

The Ministry of Education said, "In addition to the remote class, we will also conduct a circuit (visit) education for students with developmental disabilities."

In vocational or arts and physical education schools where practice is important, online classes are difficult to substitute for existing classes.

In colleges that already conduct semesters with online lectures, complaints have been raised among students of colleges of arts and sciences, nursing colleges, and science and engineering colleges.

The Ministry of Education said, "In the vocational high school, we will use the 'period intensive completion system' to learn the theory through online classes and to practice after the next school starts."

The gap between online school equipment and technology between schools and teachers is also a problem.

According to the 2018 educational informatization white paper, the number of computers per teacher is 1.4 elementary schools and 1.5 middle and high schools.

The number is not scarce, but most desktops installed in schools do not have a webcam, etc., so they are not suitable for online classes.

In order for teachers to use personal equipment, the school must have a wireless internet network, but there are quite a few schools and classrooms that do not.

The Ministry of Education has been conducting wireless network construction projects for elementary and junior high schools since 2018 with the Korea Information Society Agency (NIA). Until last year, 2,863 wireless networks were completed, and 3,661 additional wireless networks were built this year. I plan to finish.

It is said that 3,600 elementary and junior high schools do not yet have a wireless network.

Some teachers are not familiar with online instructional programs.

The Ministry of Education said, "We will improve our remote learning capabilities by discovering best practices through remote education pilot schools and sharing them with other teachers."

(Photo = Yonhap News)