Education Minister Choi Gyojin: "Firm Response to Malicious Complaints Against Schools and Teachers"

"We Will Improve Systems for Legitimate Educational Activities"
"Measures to Prevent Indiscriminate Child Abuse Reports to Be Established"

On May 15, Minister of Education Choi Gyojin stated, "The Ministry of Education will be more attentive to ensure that we can respond firmly to unreasonable and malicious civil complaints directed at schools and teachers." He especially promised to improve policies and systems so that teachers can be free from liability for matters that arise during legitimate educational activities.

In a Facebook post commemorating Teacher's Day, Minister Choi emphasized, "It would not be an exaggeration to say that teachers who stand at the frontlines of education are facing a continuous crisis."

Education Minister Choi Gyojin attended the Committee for the Promotion of Integrated Early Childhood Education and Care held on the 17th of last month at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The Asia Business Daily

He also wrote, "We will actively devise measures to prevent indiscriminate reports of child abuse. We will do our utmost to develop more wisdom and solutions to create schools where teachers' sense of responsibility and effort are rewarded, and to ensure that teaching is a happy and enjoyable experience in the classroom."

Minister Choi also expressed regret over the decline in teachers' authority. Quoting the lyrics, "A teacher's grace is like the sky, the more you look up, the higher it seems," from a well-known song traditionally sung on Teacher's Day, he remarked, "I wonder how many people can truly relate to these words today. This is the honest reality of education now." He added, "On Teacher's Day, my greatest concern is the crisis of teachers' authority. No matter how much the world changes, the respect for teachers must be preserved until the end."

Recently, a survey conducted by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations in celebration of Teacher's Day revealed that teachers' sense of professional pride has significantly diminished in school settings. In a survey of 8,900 teachers from kindergartens, elementary, middle, high schools, and universities nationwide, 33.0% answered that their sense of professional pride had 'decreased' over the past one to two years, and 16.2% said it had 'significantly decreased.' The Federation analyzed, "This suggests that, in recent years, an accumulation of negative factors such as infringements on teachers' authority, malicious civil complaints, and the threat of child abuse reports has led many teachers to feel that their professional status and sense of fulfillment are not what they once were."

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