Over 60% of Students, Staff, and Parents in Gyeonggi Area Say "Schools Are Safe from COVID-19"

Panoramic View of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education Southern Building

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] More than 60% of students, faculty, and parents in Gyeonggi Province believe that schools are safe from COVID-19, according to a survey.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education conducted an online "School Quarantine Status Awareness and Satisfaction Survey" from December 27 last year to January 6 this year, targeting a total of 83,488 people, including 15,347 elementary, middle, and high school students, 15,467 faculty members, and 52,674 parents in the province. In the "School Safety Awareness" category, 68.8% of students, 67.4% of faculty, and 64.9% of parents responded that "schools are safe from COVID-19."

Regarding "COVID-19 infectious disease prevention education received at school," 74.7% of students, 89.4% of faculty, and 86.9% of parents answered that it helped with health management.

In addition, concerning the "Perception of the effectiveness of COVID-19 infectious disease prevention measures," the proportion of respondents who said that free support for rapid antigen test kits and proactive testing were effective was 89.5% of students, 86.3% of faculty, and 91.9% of parents. Furthermore, regarding support for quarantine supplies such as masks and hand sanitizers, 88.4% of students, 91.4% of faculty, and 90.4% of parents responded that it helped prevent infectious diseases.

When the indoor mask-wearing mandate is changed to a recommendation in the future, 55.3% of students, 49.1% of faculty, and 65.4% of parents said they would "wear masks regularly as much as possible."

Finally, faculty members identified the following conditions for "future school infectious disease prevention and management": ▲ strengthening health education for students and parents ▲ support for purchasing quarantine supplies ▲ deployment of school quarantine personnel ▲ school disinfection ▲ management of meal service environments.

Sung Jeong-hyun, head of the Student Health Division at the Provincial Office of Education, said, "After the survey, indoor mask-wearing quarantine guidelines were communicated to schools in the province," adding, "We will carefully monitor to ensure that adjustments to the indoor mask-wearing mandate are applied in schools without confusion and do our best to start a safe new semester with thorough quarantine management."