Yoon Hee-sook: "Student Rights Ordinance Also Includes Content That Undermines Teacher Leadership"

Amid growing concerns about the 'decline of teacher authority' in the education field following the death of an elementary school teacher in Seoul and several cases of teacher assaults, former lawmaker Yoon Hee-sook pointed to the Student Human Rights Ordinance as one of the causes of this decline.

On the 25th, Yoon said on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show,' "In other countries, the Student Human Rights Ordinance includes the idea that I should be respected, and my friends and teachers should also be respected together. But here, such discussions are very lacking, and some provisions are included in a way that undermines the teacher's leadership in the classroom."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

She argued that only the rights of students are written, without mentioning their responsibilities, which contributed to the decline of teacher authority. She said, "I strongly agree that the Student Human Rights Ordinance respects students' human rights and treats them as individuals," but added, "the problem is that in the process, the rights of others must also be respected, and it should be taught that my rights end where they infringe on others' rights. However, such content is largely missing in the current ordinance."

Some also point out that the Child Abuse Prevention Act affects the decline of teacher authority. Yoon said, "I think aspects like teachers' right to rest and privacy need to be revised so that parents do not exert excessive influence," adding, "The problem is that parents file too many lawsuits related to child abuse, and teachers raise concerns about this."

She stated, "Teachers are often accused of child abuse just for making our children slightly uncomfortable (leading to lawsuits). I believe this is not entirely unrelated to the Student Human Rights Ordinance," and continued, "We need to comprehensively review the increasing trend of power abuse in society, the use of child abuse accusations, and human rights ordinances. If legislation is necessary, it should be enacted, and if parts of the ordinances need to be amended, they should be. This is a process of finding solutions."

In response to the host's question, "Even if the Student Human Rights Ordinance is amended, isn't it impossible to stop parents' power abuse?" Yoon said, "Some parents behave irresponsibly because they are not held accountable or checked by anyone," adding, "'If someone knew I was saying these things,' they wouldn't act that way. Therefore, we need to establish overall responsibility and accountability for parents as well."

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