Concerns about infrastructure as online classes begin in S. Korea for seniors of middle, high schools

오늘 고3, 중3 사상 첫 온라인 개학... '인프라 불안'Following repeated postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic,... the new school year has finally started in South Korea for middle and high school seniors,... although they will be learning from home... until further notice.Kim Hyo-sun reports.While seniors of middle and high schools are starting school on Thursday via online classes,... there are continued concerns about whether the never-tried mass online experiment will run without a hitch.Even until a day before restarting the new semester,... the state-run Educational Broadcasting System carried out an in-depth test of its server which had technical glitches in the process of expanding its capacity."It's true we are still concerned about stability, the server's capacity and support system when connections surge exponentially."Schools are also busy preparing for the start of the online classes.They have been repeatedly checking whether all students have smart devices at home.Schools have to make sure the devices are the latest models so students can take online lectures,... and that families with two or more kids have enough of them.Many schools are limiting two-way classes due to the capacity of the infrastructure,... with a majority of them offering educational content provided by EBS.Online classes are realistically impossible for students with disabilities who go to special education schools.On April 16th,... school will be starting for all grade levels, excluding first and second graders in elementary school.A bit of trial and error seems inevitable as nearly 5-point-5 million students will be connecting to a relatively small number of servers at the same time.Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.