99% of Teachers Say "I Am an Emotional Laborer"... Parents Identified as the Source of Stress

Kyochong, Survey of Over 30,000 Teachers
97.9% Say "Civil Complaint Stress is Serious"

It was found that 99% of current teachers consider themselves to be 'emotional laborers.' The group they feel the most stress from was identified as 'parents.'

The Korea Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA) announced the results of this survey on the perception of teacher rights violations on the 27th. The survey, conducted online from the 25th to the 26th, involved 32,951 teachers from kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high schools. The KFTA 2030 Youth Committee held a press conference in front of the National Assembly on the same day.

The survey results showed that 99% of all respondents considered themselves emotional laborers. In particular, 66.1% identified parents as the group causing the most stress. Additionally, 25.3% of respondents cited students, and 2.9% cited principals or vice principals as sources of stress. The fatigue from malicious complaints was high, with 97.9% of teachers responding that complaint-related stress was 'severe.'

When asked whether the existing system, which requires the local education office to report teacher rights violations that qualify for criminal penalties to investigative authorities, is being properly followed, 97.1% answered 'No.' Furthermore, 90.9% of respondents supported transferring the School Teacher Rights Protection Committee to the Regional Education Support Office.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Teachers identified the most necessary measure to protect teacher rights as 'strong action by the education office against false or repetitive complaints and reports.' An overwhelming 99.8% of respondents believed that the education office should file charges such as false accusation and obstruction of business against such complaints and reports.

Also, 99.8% of teachers responded that a legislative amendment granting immunity from child abuse charges for legitimate educational activities is necessary. Following this, the priorities were ▲strengthening legal consultation and litigation support by the education office for teachers reporting child abuse (99.6%) ▲imposing fines and other measures on parents who violate teacher rights (99.3%) ▲improving procedures for separating or suspending teachers based solely on child abuse reports (93.3%).

Regarding the proposal to record disciplinary actions for teacher rights violations in student records, 89.1% of respondents were in favor. Additionally, 83.1% of respondents believed that the Student Human Rights Ordinance has contributed to the decline of teacher rights.

Jung Sung-guk, president of the KFTA, stated, "Through this survey, we were able to vividly confirm the anger and self-disgust of teachers. The Student Human Rights Ordinance is a major cause of the decline in teacher rights, and there is overwhelming public opinion that serious teacher rights violations should be recorded in student records."

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