School turns snack bar into screen golf zone, used by students only 3 times

A Seoul high school recently set up a screen golf facility inside its premises which is mostly used by the staff, sparking complaints from students and their teachers over whether it was a proper use of school funds.

According to a report by local broadcaster MBC, the school based in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul shut down the school's snack bar after the government enforced social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The area was turned into a screen golf zone that is not regularly open to students, with 13 million won ($9,539) of school funds.

Upon complaints from students and their parents, the school initially said that it was for "integration of golf and physics" class, which supposedly has students researching topics such as the correlation between the angle of a golf swing and the angle the ball flies into the air. But it was revealed that such lessons for students were held only three times last year, and none so far this year.

The school then admitted that its staff had been personally using the screen golf facility. The school principal was quoted as saying, "a school should have a resting area for teachers as well, not just the students."

The controversy led to the Seoul Metropolitan Education Office requesting a class plan involving the screen golf facility, to which school complied by vowing to use the facility for classes in the second semester of this year.