The nationwide cement shortage is affecting our education system. School construction in new cities in the Seoul metropolitan area has been disrupted, and half of the schools planned to open this September in Gyeonggi have been delayed.
Reporter Lim Tae-woo has the exclusive report.
<Reporter
An integrated elementary and secondary school in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, is located in the middle of a 3,000-unit apartment complex.
The opening of the school, which was scheduled for this September, was recently delayed to March next year.
Residents who have already moved in and are waiting for the school to open are worried.
With the delayed opening of the school right in their neighborhood, they will have to send their children to a school far away.
Let’s go to the nearest school.
I time it, and it takes a little over 10 minutes at an adult pace.
Even the middle school isn’t within walking distance.
[Park Pangi/Resident: Even if you go by car, it takes about 10 minutes, 15 minutes. The most inconvenient would be the children. If they could go to school nearby, it would save time and….]토토사이트
An elementary school in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, also had its September opening pushed back to next year.
Only one elementary school has opened in this new city of more than 10,000 households.
It’s overcrowded, with nearly 30 students in a class, more than 10 classes per grade, and not even enough lunchrooms.
[Parent: They’re building another apartment building around here, but I think there will be more kids when it’s finished, so I hope they build it soon].
Half of the four schools scheduled to open in September in a new town in Gyeonggi-do have been pushed back to next year, due to the cement supply and demand crunch that swept the country earlier this year.
[Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education: It’s not like we can do anything about the supply of cement raw materials, and neither can the (concrete) cooperatives….]
Instead of delaying the opening of the school, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education considered introducing “modular classrooms,” a type of prefabricated building, but gave up due to the cost.
Counting the schools targeted to open next March, the total is 23.
There are concerns that more schools will be delayed if the cement supply disruption is prolonged.