COVID-19 Overcoming 'Edutech Companies Meeting'... "Supporting Remote Class Implementation"

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 2nd that it will hold an 'Edutech Companies Meeting' involving the Ministry of Education and private education companies.

The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Seoul office of the Korea Student Aid Foundation. It was organized to gather opinions from private experts, including representatives of Edutech companies, to ensure that remote classes can be firmly established in the educational field following the online school opening.

About 10 people will attend, including Yoo Eun-hye, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, Lee Gil-ho, President of the Korea Edutech Industry Association, as well as representatives of startups in the Edutech and childcare sectors, and executives from Naver and Kakao.

Through this meeting, they plan to discover diverse and high-quality educational content and online platforms from domestic Edutech companies, listen to vivid field opinions, and discuss together the direction of Korea's Edutech technology and industry development.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will introduce to the Ministry of Education the services of Edutech startups that provide free online learning to help establish remote classes in the field. The Edutech companies attending the meeting offer free online courses for students and online platforms that can be used by teachers and schools, enabling various technical support necessary for remote classes.

Additionally, startups in the childcare sector that provide free childcare services are expected to alleviate difficulties faced by families who find it unsuitable to leave their children elsewhere due to the online school opening.

Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Eun-hye stated at the meeting, "I thank the Edutech stakeholders who have provided educational content and remote class platforms for easy use to address the difficulties in the education field caused by COVID-19. If diverse and good content from the private sector is smoothly delivered to the educational field, we can overcome this crisis and establish remote education as a new form of learning."

Minister Park Young-sun said, "We need to seek solutions together between the public and private sectors to address social issues such as learning gaps and childcare raised by COVID-19 through the use of startup technologies and collaboration with platform venture companies. The efforts of Edutech companies will be a strong force to overcome COVID-19, and the government will also join these efforts."