PROBLEMS WITH ONLINE LEARNING PLATFORM

[Anchor Lead]

The Ministry of Education has introduced a new online learning platform for school classes. But two weeks into the new school year, students are still experiencing problems accessing the platform and checking their assignments.

[Pkg]

EBS real-time online classes are being used by students of all grades. Sometimes connection is severed all of a sudden.

[Soundbite] "Something is wrong again."

Moments later a message saying the students have left the room pops up on the screen.

[Soundbite] Hong Joo-hyung(High school teacher) : "Oftentimes students have to re-enter the online classroom repeatedly. The screen size keeps changing during classes out of the blue."

At another school, when a teacher switches the screen, some of the students can't see it due to delays in the program.

[Soundbite] "I have turned the page, but some saw it differently."

Since the start of the new school year there have been minor and major disruptions in EBS online classes. On March 3 and 4, access was denied altogether. Two weeks into the new school year, students are still experiencing difficulties accessing the platform and using certain features.

[Soundbite] Hong Yoo-jin(Director at teachers' organization) : "The teachers keep apologizing to their students. They don't know why there are errors in the platform. It's frustrating."

A distance learning platform used in elementary and middle schools crashed for about an hour on March 8, disrupting online classes in the Gyeonggi and Jeollado regions. A poll on teachers' organizations shows half of the respondents find EBS online classes unstable. About 40 percent of those surveyed are still using Google Classroom for distance learning. The Education Ministry claims the errors occurred because real-time online learning features were added hastily.

[Soundbite] Koo Yeon-hee(Ministry of Education) : "It's important to stabilize the key features as soon as possible. We also need to make the learning platform more convenient for schools."

The teachers' organizations are demanding schools be allowed to use distance learning systems developed by private businesses free of charge instead of the government-provided platform, which they see as highly problematic.