Primary, secondary students in Seoul go to school until 9 a.m.

From March 2 when the new school year begins, students in 462 elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul go to their schools until 9 a.m.

“Of the 598 elementary schools in Seoul, 447 schools, or 74.7 percent of them, have decided to delay the time to go to school by 10-30 minutes from 08:50 to 09:00 in the morning,” said the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. “Among schools which do not officially change the school attending time to 9 a.m., 49 middle schools and 48 high schools have decided to delay the time by 10-30 minutes." Some 14, out of 383 middle schools and only one out of 318 high schools have joined the change.

The Seoul education office plans to provide those schools that change the time with financial support of 0.8-1 million won (approx. 725-907 U.S. dollars) to be spent for Korea Green Mother who guide students for safe traffic on the way to school in the morning or student care program for those who come to schools earlier than 9 a.m. In the case of middle and high schools, libraries will open and morning workout program will be run for the early-comers.

Experts say that although there were concerns over elementary schools, the change of time will ultimately settle down without much trial and error given that primary schoolers used to go to school at around 08:30-08:40 even before the change.

It was pointed out, however, that some adjustment needs to be made since the time changed corresponds with the time when the first class begins. Under this change, teachers hardly have time to prepare the first class. In an effort to cope with this, Gireum Elementary School in Seongbuk district has pushed back the start of the first class by 10 minutes, which automatically causes the following classes to begin 10 minutes later than before and students to finish the day at school 10 minutes later as well. Most of middle and high schools rejected to join the change of time as it could disrupt class schedule for their students.

Until the last minute of the official announcement of time change, some troubles were made as the office aggressively demanded schools to follow suit. “Managers from the education office have made frequent phone calls demanding “to follow the change” when 90 percent of parents are rejecting it,” complained a principal in an elementary school in Seoul.

It is said that, in an effort to increase the number of schools that participate the change of time policy, some district offices of education sent a text message that says, “We will count your school in as the one who changes the policy even though the first class at your school still begins at 9 a.m. Instead, respond that your school has decided to change the attending time when asked.”

Another elementary school’s principal in Seoul who reluctantly joined the change of time said, “The first class in every elementary school begins at 9 a.m. Although we have changed nothing, the name of our school was put on the list that changed the time policy. We were dumbfounded.”