[Insight & Opinion] The Student Record Book Turning into a Chronicle of Misconduct and Deviance

Published 15 Sep.2023 13:51(KST)

Voices are gaining strength to uphold teachers' rights in schools to protect the human rights of teachers pushed to the brink of death. However, the backlash is taking an unexpected turn. There is a proposal to record student assaults on teachers and malicious demands or complaints from parents in the school life records. In fact, the Ministry of Education announced on the 23rd of last month a “comprehensive plan” to actively revise the student human rights ordinances being implemented by seven metropolitan and provincial offices of education in that direction.

The school life record, also called the “student record” or “saenggibu,” is a monster that emerged from the May 31, 1995 education reform. It greatly expanded the modest one-page life record that included the homeroom teacher’s simple “character evaluation.” The goal was to enable subjective evaluations not only of academic performance but also of diligence and industriousness. The student record is also an official government record permanently stored in the Ministry of Education’s education administration information system (NEIS). Anyone can obtain their student record at any time by paying a fee. It is no different from a family register or family relationship certificate.

Imperfectly imitating the American system, the student record literally records everything. It includes detailed subject grades and rankings, as well as all aspects of the student’s life inside and outside school. Specific details of awards and volunteer activities, as well as detailed abilities and special notes, are also recorded. In-depth inquiry activities based on “reading” are no exception. This means that the teacher’s subjective evaluation of book reports is also recorded. Even the student’s “future aspirations” must be written down.

The student records for elementary and middle schools have no sharp purpose. However, the situation is different for high schools. The voluminous student record, which can be described as a “biography” of school life, is a decisive evaluation factor in college admissions. This is especially true for “early admission” based on internal grades. The “comprehensive student record screening” has also emerged, which aims to scrutinize the student record in detail. It was a groundbreaking attempt to revolutionize the “old method” of judging acceptance solely by the meager exam scores that depend on luck, and to carefully reflect “regular abilities” in the evaluation. However, there are criticisms that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

That saenggibu has started to be used in an unexpected way. It has become a clever means to eradicate the serious social problem of school violence (hakpok). Since 2012, measures taken under Article 17 of the “School Violence Prevention Act” have been recorded in the student records of offending students. Now, the saenggibu has become a scarlet letter confirming involvement in school violence. In April, a “comprehensive measure” was also implemented to prevent the unauthorized deletion of school violence records from student records.

No one knows how much school violence has decreased due to student record entries. However, it is clear that the school violence records have made the teacher’s position difficult. Teachers have now been reduced to court clerks who record and manage student misconduct and deviance. From the parents’ perspective, teachers are no longer “masters” whose shadow should not even be stepped on. Rather, they have become “judges” guarding the gates of hell, ready to brand their own children with a scarlet letter.

The Ministry of Education, cornered by the controversy over the collapse of teachers’ rights, is again seeking an exit through the student record. Whether teachers’ rights can be revived through student record entries remains unclear. However, the position of teachers, who must record every misbehavior of their students, will become even more constrained.