Kang Min-jung: "No Agreement on Key Parts of the Teacher Protection Bill"

Democratic Party Rep. Kang Min-jung MBC Radio Interview
"Issue of False Child Abuse Reports... No Agreement Reached"

Regarding the ruling party's criticism that the passage of the bill to protect teachers' authority has been delayed due to the opposition party's non-cooperation, Kang Min-jung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, rebutted, saying, "Bills that protect important educational activities have not been agreed upon."

Kang, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 11th and said, "(In the Education Committee) we have discussed contents that can protect legitimate educational activities four times so far, some have been agreed upon, but key parts still remain unresolved."

Kang explained, "In fact, to solve the problems raised by teachers, two things are needed: a bill to protect (teachers') educational activities, and a solution to the side effects caused by the application of the Child Abuse Punishment Act to the education sector."

Kang Min-jung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, is holding a press conference on the morning of the 9th at the National Assembly Communication Office in Yeouido, Seoul, to propose a bill for the protection of teachers' educational activities.

She continued, "What we have mainly discussed in the Education Committee so far were bills to protect educational activities," adding, "We agreed that 'legitimate guidance of students is not considered child abuse,' but in reality, this cannot completely prevent issues related to child abuse. What constitutes legitimate guidance itself becomes a subject of litigation."

Kang stated that from August to September, four subcommittee meetings were held to agree on provisions for sanctions against violations of teachers' authority by parents and to expand the scope of authority violations to include malicious complaints. However, she emphasized that since there is no agreement yet on improving the reality where teachers' legitimate educational activities are reported as child abuse, further discussions are necessary.

Regarding the disagreement between the ruling and opposition parties over the provision requiring the recording of authority violations in student records, Kang pointed out, "Since the year 2012, when recording in student records began, administrative appeals and lawsuits suddenly increased, reaching nearly 900 cases last year. Teachers are already suffering from being accused of child abuse, and if authority violations are also recorded in student records, it becomes an even heavier burden."

She also noted that the preventive effect on authority violations is difficult to expect. Kang said, "Statistically, school violence should have decreased after recording in student records, but it has continued to increase. This shows that it is not practically effective in controlling school violence; rather, schools have become battlegrounds for lawsuits, and even law firms specializing in school violence have emerged."

Regarding the Democratic Party's proposal to establish a Child Abuse Case Judgment Committee within the education office, Kang explained, "The Teacher Authority Protection Committee has been established for quite some time, but it has already lost its effectiveness, so teachers have great distrust toward it. I believe that only by operating an independent system separately can this problem be fundamentally resolved."

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