Request for Investigation of Inappropriate Answers and Strengthening of Terminology Filtering... Improvement of Teacher Evaluation

The Ministry of Education announced on the 12th that it will conduct the 2023 Teacher Competency Development Evaluation from September to November and has provided detailed implementation guidelines to each Office of Education.

According to the Offices of Education, the teacher evaluation, which assesses teachers' learning and life guidance using a 5-point checklist and open-ended questions, involves students from 4th grade of elementary school to 3rd grade of high school, as well as parents of students from 1st grade of elementary school to 3rd grade of high school, participating anonymously.

The Ministry of Education has taken steps to supplement the implementation plan for teacher evaluations following last year's controversy over student sexual harassment through the teacher evaluation process.

First, during July and August, the list of prohibited words filtered in open-ended responses will be expanded and updated. Until last year, only 876 prohibited words stored in the database (DB) could be filtered. The system has been improved to filter prohibited words mixed with special characters as well.

Although there was already a function to filter inappropriate phrases such as profanity and insults, last year a controversy arose when students cleverly avoided filtering by mixing special characters.

Additionally, the Ministry of Education has informed that inappropriate responses are defined as acts infringing on educational activities under the "Special Act on the Improvement of Teachers' Status and Protection of Educational Activities" (Teacher Status Act), and schools and education support offices can actively respond by requesting investigations.

Once the offending student is identified, a Teacher Rights Protection Committee can be convened to implement measures such as school or community service, special education or psychological treatment, suspension, class transfer, and in severe cases, transfer or expulsion due to infringement on educational activities. Psychological counseling and special leave can be provided to the affected teacher, allowing the school to take protective measures.

A warning statement will also be posted before the open-ended questions stating, "Submitting inappropriate responses may result in punishment under relevant laws and measures due to infringement on educational activities."

Along with this, the Ministry of Education plans to divide the open-ended questions by areas such as learning guidance and life guidance, and organize them into specific questions categorized by school level.

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