Anchor: Schools across the nation began their new academic year on Thursday with entrance ceremonies held without a mask mandate for the first time in four years. The beginning of the new school year comes after the education ministry announced a set of quarantine rules.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: Elementary, middle and high schools held on Thursday in-person entrance ceremonies ​that did not require students to wear masks for the first time since March 2019.

In 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the beginning of the school year was repeatedly postponed before the ceremonies were held online in mid-April, with the following two years featuring offline ceremonies that abided by a new set of social distancing rules, including mask-wearing.

As schools sought to resume their normal daily routines, the government has adjusted quarantine rules, including easing regulations on the submission of information in the “Self-Diagnosis App.”

Under the new rules, entering such information is only recommended if a person is suffering from COVID-19 symptoms, has tested positive for the virus or is waiting for PCR test results after a family member has tested positive.

Also with the new rules, the standard temperature checks conducted on all students and faculty are no longer mandatory, while plastic dividers are not required in cafeterias.

Although wearing masks indoors is no longer mandatory in line with the lifting of the indoor mask mandate in January, students will be obligated to wear masks on school buses.

Schools must also maintain basic safety requirements, including regularly ventilating classrooms and reserving areas where students or faculty members showing symptoms of COVID-19 can be observed.

The education ministry will provide schools with support for the next two weeks to help them adjust to the new rules, with plans to assign up to 58-thousand quarantine personnel to schools and provide hand sanitizers and thermometers to lessen the burden of the mandates on schools.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.