"Advance Reservation Required for School Visits"... Full Implementation in Seoul Schools Starting October

Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Fully Implements 'School Visit Advance Reservation System'
Part of 'Comprehensive Measures to Protect Teachers' Rights', Pilot Introduced in November
Seoul Education Office: "45% of Counseling Requests Are Canceled"
Protecting Teachers from Uncontrolled School Visits

To alleviate the burden of handling complaints on teachers, a system requiring external visitors to schools to use a prior reservation system will be fully implemented in all schools within Seoul. Starting from October, external visitors must apply for consultations in advance through the website or messenger before visiting schools.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 22nd that from October 1st, the prior reservation system for school visits will be fully enforced in all schools within Seoul. The target schools include all public kindergartens, public and private elementary, middle, high, and special schools.

After an incident last July where an elementary school teacher at Seoi Elementary School passed away, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced in September a 'Comprehensive Plan to Protect Teachers' Educational Activities,' which included plans to introduce a prior reservation system for school visits. Visitors search for the school name via KakaoTalk messenger or the school website, then reserve and receive approval by specifying the purpose, target, and date/time of the visit. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education introduced this system to protect teachers' classes and educational activities from indiscriminate visits by parents and other external visitors.

[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

In November, a pilot operation was conducted at 68 kindergartens, elementary, middle, high, and special schools. In June, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education conducted a usage status review and survey analysis with 252 staff members from the pilot schools to evaluate the outcomes. The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education also conducted a pilot operation of the school visit prior reservation system at 68 schools starting from April.

[Source: Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education]

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the average number of system uses per school was 1.8 times per month. They internally analyzed this as indicating an effect of reducing external visitors to schools. Additionally, 71.8% of the staff who responded to the survey expressed support for the full implementation.

A representative from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education explained, "Previously, anyone could enter the school as long as their identity was verified, so many external visitors waited to meet teachers. Since the pilot introduction, about 45% of those who applied for consultations canceled their reservations. After the system was introduced, the number of complaint-related consultations has decreased."