Lee Ju-ho: "Saddened by the 'Daejeon Teacher Assault'... Will Pay Special Attention to School Safety"

Emphasizing the Need to Amend the Student Human Rights Ordinance
Im Tae-hee: "Current Ordinance Only Contains Rights"

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho expressed his condolences regarding the teacher assault incident that occurred in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, stating, "It is very unfortunate. We will pay special attention to school safety this time to ensure that such incidents never happen again."

After attending the 'Ministry of Education-Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education Student Human Rights Ordinance Amendment Meeting' held on the 4th at the Korea Education Facilities Safety Institute in Yeouido, Seoul, Deputy Prime Minister Lee made these remarks to reporters.

When asked whether the comprehensive measures to protect teachers' rights, scheduled to be announced at the end of August, would include strengthened school access controls, he replied, "We will consider it."

Earlier at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Lee emphasized the necessity of amending the Student Human Rights Ordinance. He criticized, "Survey results show that infringements on educational activities continue due to the enactment of the Student Human Rights Ordinance. Because of the guarantee of privacy, inspections of personal belongings cannot be conducted; to protect the right to rest, sleeping students cannot be awakened; and due to the guarantee of bodily freedom, teachers find it difficult to actively intervene in urgent school violence situations."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He added, "In the name of human rights, infringing on other students' right to learn and the right to education is a problem that damages others' rights. The current ordinance excludes provisions on responsibilities and duties, so it cannot be considered a fully-fledged human rights ordinance."

On the same day, Gyeonggi Provincial Superintendent of Education Lim Tae-hee stated, "Amending the Student Human Rights Ordinance does not solve everything," but also noted, "The Gyeonggi Student Human Rights Ordinance serves as a model for student human rights ordinances nationwide, but its articles are unbalanced."

Superintendent Lim criticized, "Only rights are recorded, and in one or two places, it only states that something can be done through school rules. Although the intention was good, because of respect for individual students, other students were not respected, and teachers were left unable to exercise their authority."

He continued, "I hope this becomes an opportunity for change in behavior by combining the limits of human rights and rights with the responsibility to be held when these are violated. Besides amending the ordinance, laws such as the School Violence Act and the Child Abuse Act should also be revised where necessary," he said.

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