No Rewards for Double the Care... The Hardships of a Homeroom Teacher in an 'Integrated Class'

The Ministry of Education's Request Was Not Accepted Last Year
Increase in Inclusive Classes... Demands Expected to Intensify

As the number of inclusive classes where children with special education needs attend regular schools together increases, attention is focused on whether a new allowance for inclusive class homeroom teachers can be established. The Ministry of Education attempted to introduce such an allowance this year in response to demands from the education sector, but it was scrapped during inter-agency discussions.

According to the Ministry of Education on the 20th, last year the ministry pushed for the establishment of a 50,000 KRW allowance for inclusive class homeroom teachers, but the Ministry of Personnel Management did not accept it. A Ministry of Education official explained, "While the allowance increase for extracurricular teachers was accepted, the reason for the rejection was not specified." It is interpreted that, given the limited budget, the allowance for inclusive class homeroom teachers was deprioritized.

Currently, inclusive class homeroom teachers face more difficulties in their work compared to regular class teachers but do not receive a separate allowance. Seongmo, a 29-year-old middle school teacher, said, "Especially when leading experiential learning activities without a special education teacher accompanying us, the homeroom teacher has to 'mark one-on-one' the special education child. If an accident happens to another child during that time, the homeroom teacher is also responsible for that issue." He added, "We definitely have to pay more than twice the attention, so giving the same allowance as regular classes is problematic." Teacher organizations such as the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union and the National Teachers' Union empathized with this and submitted a request last year to establish a 120,000 KRW allowance for inclusive class homeroom teachers.

As the number of inclusive classes steadily increases, demands for the establishment of an allowance are expected to intensify. According to special education statistics, the number of full-time inclusive class students rose annually from 15,344 in 2016 to 19,254 last year.

Discussions on establishing the allowance for next year are expected to begin around February to March. To create a new allowance for teachers and other public officials, the "Regulations on Allowances for Public Officials," stipulated by presidential decree, must be amended. The Ministry of Education will review allowance adjustment requests submitted by education offices and labor unions and submit the results of the Allowance Adjustment Deliberation Committee’s resolution to the Ministry of Personnel Management for negotiation. Jeon Seung-hyuk, vice chairman of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, said, "We will demand the inclusive class homeroom teacher allowance again this year," adding, "Along with this, various measures such as reducing the number of students in inclusive classes are necessary."

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