Five-Minute Breaks, Forty-Minute Lunches... Private Elementary Schools in Gwangju Neglect Students' Right to Rest

Civic Group: "Playtime Is a Basic Right... The Ordinance’s Purpose Is Undermined"
"Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education Must Urgently Conduct a Survey and Establish Guidelines"

There has been criticism that some private elementary schools in Gwangju are allocating only five minutes for breaks, thereby failing to guarantee students’ basic right to rest. An education civic group has called for an investigation and policy improvements by the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, emphasizing that "play and rest are rights."

The civic group "Citizens’ Coalition for a Society Without Academic Elitism" announced on June 26 that, after analyzing curriculum operation plans from Gwangju elementary schools and data on students’ right to play from the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, it found that some private schools were operating in ways that infringed upon students’ human rights.

A private elementary school in Gwangju included a "School Life Schedule" in a notice to parents. It states that the break between the first and second periods is only 5 minutes, and the lunch break is limited to 40 minutes.

According to the group, 98 elementary schools in the Gwangju area provide a 20-minute mid-morning playtime each day, and among them, 18 schools have secured 30 minutes for this break. As for lunch breaks, 76 schools allocate 50 to 55 minutes, and 37 schools provide a full hour. Most schools were also found to have budgeted for programs to guarantee the right to play.

However, in some private elementary schools, the break after the first and second periods is only five minutes, leaving students with insufficient time even to use the restroom. The group also pointed out that these schools force students to arrive early and participate in morning activities, thereby disregarding the Office of Education’s "9 a.m. school start policy."

The lunch break is also limited to just 40 minutes, and after-school "Neulbom School" programs provide only a five-minute break, citing the schedule of school bus departures as the reason.

The civic group criticized that "lunch and break times are determined at the discretion of each principal, yet the Office of Education has not even grasped the current situation." They further stated, "With declining youth physical fitness emerging as a social issue, failing to provide elementary students with sufficient rest is a violation of their right to health. The Office of Education must conduct a comprehensive survey to ensure the ordinance on the right to play does not become a dead letter, and must improve the management practices at the relevant schools."