[Opinion] Rethinking the Political Neutrality of Education

The political neutrality of education is guaranteed by law, as stipulated by the Constitution. To elaborate, the Framework Act on Education states that education must be operated to fulfill its original purpose and must not be used as a means to propagate political, factional, or personal biases.

Generally, the political neutrality of education is considered a norm primarily applicable to elementary and secondary education, yet surprisingly, related laws are extremely insufficient. The Local Education Autonomy Act requires that candidates for superintendent of education must not have been members of any political party for the past year. The National Public Service Act prohibits public officials (including national and public school teachers) from participating in the formation or joining of political parties or other political organizations, and from engaging in activities such as urging support or opposition for specific parties or candidates in elections. Additionally, the Private School Act applies the same regulations to private school teachers as those for national and public school teachers.

There are no restrictions on political party membership for the President, who oversees national education policy, nor for the Minister of Education. Members of the National Assembly and metropolitan/provincial education committees, who handle education-related laws and oversee policies, are all members of political parties. Limiting only the superintendent of education from being a party member is insufficient to guarantee the political neutrality of education, and there is no mechanism to control the political activities of non-party-member superintendents.

The current system can be said to leave wide open the possibility that education may be used as a tool to propagate political, factional, or personal biases.

To make matters worse, with the recent amendment of the Public Official Election Act lowering the voting age to 18, the risk of undermining the political neutrality of education has increased. Although teachers are not officially party members, those who act like party members are more likely to conduct politically biased education. As high school education becomes linked to votes, the emergence of politically biased textbooks is only a matter of time.

There seems to be some consensus on banning election campaigning within schools, so supplementary legislation is expected. However, even so, political parties will continue attempts to campaign targeting schools. Since the party a young voter supports in their first election is likely to become their lifelong choice, parties are expected to fiercely compete to secure youth support.

As students’ political interest grows and they become targets of election campaigns, violations of election laws by students and teachers will also increase. Students may become offenders due to a lack of understanding of election laws, and if students who previously tolerated politically biased remarks by teachers begin to actively raise issues, cases of teachers violating election laws may surge.

Although the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education’s attempt to conduct mock election education was halted by the Election Commission, the incident revealed the education authorities’ contradictory stance toward 18-year-old voters. While asserting that granting voting rights to 18-year-olds is not problematic, treating them as subjects needing mock election education is contradictory. The Election Commission stated that mock election education could be considered a pre-election poll and thus an election intervention by public officials, but it is understood that the concern was ultimately about the potential damage to political neutrality.

If the amended election law cannot be reversed, related laws should realistically be revised to prevent education from being used as a means to propagate political or factional biases. Supplementary legislation is needed to prevent election law violations by students and teachers, and additional legislation to guarantee the political neutrality of education should be enacted at this opportunity. Legislation mandating education policy officials and teachers to maintain political neutrality and penalizing violations, as well as legislation banning party-government consultations related to education policy, should also be considered.

Song Ki-chang, Professor, Department of Education, Sookmyung Women’s University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.