“We just have a reputation for being patient people!”
On the afternoon of September 4, 2023, a teacher stood on stage in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul and shouted in a voice full of anger, and the teachers filling the street in front of the National Assembly applauded loudly in agreement. The teachers, wearing black t-shirts and staring at the stage expressionlessly or with tears in their eyes, were sitting in an extremely orderly manner.
There were teachers all over India holding signs and giving directions to avoid traffic jams, and from in front of the National Assembly to Yeouido Park, about 50,000 teachers lined up like a game of checkerboard.
The fact that they even held the ‘Public Education Suspension (Normalization) Day’ to commemorate the 49 misfortunes of Seocho-gu teachers showed how ‘well-tolerated people’ they are. The ‘people who tolerated it well’ began to talk about what they had endured that day, their voices trembling while covering their faces.
■ “Crazy
What was endured was different depending on whether you were a kindergarten teacher, an elementary school teacher, or a middle or high school teacher, but one thing was common. The parents in the case no longer treated teachers as ‘teachers’ who would educate their children.
The attitude of parents was close to the attitude of consumers demanding that ‘since I paid taxes, I should receive fair educational services.’ School is no longer a place for ‘education’. Kindergartens and elementary schools, which should be the starting point for children to learn social skills with emotional stability, have been reduced to ‘places for childcare services,’ and middle and high schools, which should be places for discussion and exploration for curious youth, have been reduced to ‘places for college entrance preparation services.’ did.
■ Parents like ‘consumers’ of education services
Following the teacher in Seocho-gu, Seoul, teachers took their lives one after another in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, and Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Although it cannot be concluded that all of them are due to school problems such as ‘parental complaints’, the statistics showing that over 100 elementary, middle, and high school teachers have taken their lives over the past six years (2018 to the end of June 2023) show that the Seocho-gu teacher’s tragedy is an exceptional case. It shows that it is not.
In fact, according to the results of the ‘2023 Teacher Job-Related Mental Health Survey’ conducted by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) in collaboration with Green Hospital, the number of teachers showing symptoms of depression was 3,505 respondents (including kindergarten, elementary, middle, high school, and special education teachers) who showed symptoms of depression. ) was 63.2%, and in particular, the number of cases showing severe depressive symptoms reached 38.3%.
The government’s attitude toward teachers who were angry about malicious complaints made them frustrated once again. The Ministry of Education, which had been making threats such as ‘illegal assembly’, ‘disciplinary action’, and ‘stern response’, decided not to discipline teachers for their collective actions as public opinion deteriorated, but the remarks made in the midst of it gave an idea of the government’s thoughts on teachers. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Joo-ho said at the general meeting of the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee on September 4, “We will try to be as lenient
as possible toward the teachers who participated this time,” and Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, also said, “We hope that the government will take a tolerant stance .” “I ask you to do so,” he said. One teacher who participated in the rally said this sarcastically during an interview. “High-ranking people are doing this, so what does a lowly civil servant like me know?”
The People Power Party began to review the student human rights ordinance, blaming this incident on ‘progressive politics’. However, if you look at the teachers’ sincere complaints that day, you can see how the claim that ‘schools were ruined because of the introduction of the student human rights ordinance’ was at odds with reality.
A teacher with 25 years of experience who came from Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do to attend the rally said, “The situation has gotten worse since about 10 years ago. Student human rights must be guaranteed. Corporal punishment should also be banned. However, when a system was introduced to replace corporal punishment while banning it, it became a problem because parents said, ‘Don’t do it, it’s abuse.’ Instead of corporal punishment, we tried to introduce a system of reward and penalty points, but they said it was ‘abuse’, so they removed the penalty points and only used the reward system. Then, ‘I abused the child who didn’t receive it. I said, ‘Don’t do it.’ “It got to this point because the school couldn’t find an alternative,” he said.
A low-experience teacher from a high school in Seoul also said, “We want to teach children. In fact, 95% of students and parents really respect teachers. “The problem is malicious complaints from a minority of 5%, and the problem is that there is no shield to block teachers here and now,” he said.
A teacher on stage said, “ I boldly believe that students’ human rights should be further promoted as an educator’s conscience. Did we say that we would receive the soulless obedience of students as if we were in power under the pretext of entering the student records? When he shouted , “We want an educational environment where we can respect each other and learn happily and safely, ” applause and cheers erupted from the numerous teachers.
■ Student Human Rights Ordinance Only 6 out of 17 offices of education… Teachers’ anger erupts nationwide.
In fact, the Student Human Rights Ordinance, introduced in 2010, is being implemented by 6 out of 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education across the country, and even then, it has never been strictly implemented because school rules take priority within schools. For the politicians’ claims to be correct, teachers’ complaints should have come from only six of the nation’s provincial and provincial offices of education.
Additionally, the Student Human Rights Ordinance created based on the ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’ is not unique to Korea. This human rights ordinance was created in response to various problems such as teachers emotionally punishing students and teachers preparing for college entrance receiving bribes. It emphasizes the importance of students’ human rights and their educational significance in any developed country. The essence of the situation is close to the problem of parents who threaten teachers with words such as ‘child abuse and lawsuits’ under the pretext of their children’s human rights, and students who are taught such attitudes by their parents at home.
The Ministry of Education has been busy holding on-site meetings and discussions following the death of a teacher in Seocho-gu. Measures were also announced. According to the ‘Comprehensive plan to restore and protect teaching rights’ announced on August 23, from now on parents will not be able to file complaints through teachers’ personal mobile phones, and simple complaints will be handled by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots . A civil complaint response team is also formed under the responsibility of the school principal. Additionally, if a student disrupts class, he or she may be taken out of the classroom and his/her cell phone may be confiscated. In particular, serious violations of teaching rights may be recorded in the school record.
The Ministry of Education came up with this plan to restore teaching rights, but why did teachers hold their 8th rally on September 4th?
“It’s so frustrating because I don’t know the field온라인카지노. (The Ministry of Education) came out saying, “Do what, do this, do that.” If you do that, there will be consequences, right? There is no plan for the next expected situation. For example, immediately separate (students who violate teaching rights). But what are you going to do after separation? How will you educate the separated child? (The child will not be able to receive an education.) So will the parents just sit back and watch? Parents don’t trust teachers. The child says one or two lines about something that happened at school during the six hours that made him upset. “At least we need to find out the full story, get angry, and report it even if it means getting angry.” (Teacher S, who came to attend the rally from Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do) ■ Teachers
need alternatives to education, not ‘severe punishment.’
Teachers also guarantee the learning rights of separated students. I hoped it could happen. We request the establishment of specific guidelines that include separation locations, guidance methods, and responsibility (in case of conflict). We are also concerned about the situation in which educational officials called ‘civil complaint response staff’ are the victims of insults from parents.
Teachers don’t want to ‘kick out’ children, they want to ‘teach’ them. We can only hope that the government fully guarantees the right to education and protects against the unfair stigma of child abuse and malicious complaints. Measures that end with the policy of ‘excluding students with problematic behavior from the classroom and recording them in the student records’ did not seem to be helpful neither educationally nor in improving relationships with parents. Rather than ‘severe punishment’, teachers needed an ‘educational alternative’ that would make all parents, students, and teachers happy.