Kids are Kids: Corona-Proofing Early Childhood Programs in the Republic of Korea

As of January 26, 2021, around 18.8 percent of confirmed COVID-19 patients in the Republic of Korea were in their 50’s and only 3.75% were children below 10 years old. This figure may just be a drop in the bucket, yet the profound effects of this global pandemic on young children’s development cannot be overlooked. COVID-19 has not yet been considered a “children’s disease” because of very few confirmed cases and for those who have contracted it, the fatality rate has been very low. Relying on an aggressive trace-test-and-quarantine program, South Korea has so far weathered this crisis without major lockdowns. It has been hailed by various countries for “flattening the curve” in a short period of time. This paper investigates how the education sector in South Korea responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. It documents the educational experiences in making the Nuri Curriculum more relevant and effective as significant educational adjustments were put into action to deal with the new policies related to South Korea’s COVID-19 response. A description of the innovative alternative practices in terms of the physical and temporal environments as well as curricular strategies implemented in Kindergarten schools and child care centers are elaborated in this paper. This is supplemented with feedback gathered from interviews with early childhood educators, which reveal both the difficulties and psychological rewards that they have experienced.