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A scene from comedian Suji Lee's video "Human Documentary: The Real Extreme Job," uploaded on her YouTube channel on the 7th. Suji Lee YouTube channel "Hotissueji."

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This content, which satirizes the reality of kindergarten teachers suffering from excessive work, emotional labor, and parental complaints, has reached 5 million views within 10 days of posting. In over 20,000 comments, former and current teachers overwhelmingly said, "Reality is even worse."

Recently, after the death of a private kindergarten teacher in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, who went to work despite having flu symptoms, demands to improve the poor working conditions of kindergarten teachers have grown louder. In the midst of this, a survey found that 6 out of 10 kindergarten teachers answered that they "cannot use annual leave, or don't even know if they are allowed to.", drawing attention.

Comedian Suzy Lee's YouTube channel video "Human Docu: The Real Extreme Job" surpassed 5 million views within 10 days of posting. This is a remarkable record, clearly standing out compared to other videos with around 400,000 views. Suzy Lee's YouTube channel is called "Hot Issue J".

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According to the group World Without Worries About Private Education on April 17, only 38.3% of kindergarten teachers are able to use their annual leave. Data presented at a forum on April 15 titled "Early Childhood Teacher Working Conditions and Free Education" showed that 87.5% of daycare center teachers said they could use annual leave, but among kindergarten teachers, 42.8% said "cannot use it" and 19.0% answered "don't know." Roughly 6 out of 10 teachers (61.8%) have either not been able to use annual leave or have not been properly informed about their entitlement. These figures are based on a reanalysis of the "Trends in Employment and Treatment Improvement Measures for Daycare and Kindergarten Teachers" report published by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education in 2023.

The forum pointed to the unique structural issues faced by early childhood teachers as the background for these realities. Especially in private kindergartens, where the "one class, one teacher" system is standard, the absence of even one teacher immediately causes gaps in classes and care. Unlike elementary, middle, and high schools or some public kindergartens, there is a lack of spare personnel or a pool of substitute teachers, making it difficult for teachers to take leave even when sick.

During the forum, a former teacher shared that in 18 years of work, she never took a sick day, and when she had an infectious disease, she continued working with a mask on because there were no substitute teachers available. The case of a private kindergarten teacher in Bucheon who died after going to work despite flu symptoms starkly illustrates this reality.

A kindergarten teacher in Bucheon who died from the flu exchanged messages with an acquaintance before passing away. Provided by the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union.

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Jaepil Lee, head of the Early Childhood Teachers Association, said, "The government should be responsible for the substitute teacher pool and related costs, standardize the procedures for applying for and processing sick leave, and require administrative action if principals arbitrarily deny sick leave requests." He added, "The board of education should regularly monitor sick leave usage, and if an institution reports zero cases, it should immediately conduct an on-site inspection." He emphasized that, as in the Bucheon case, 'while sick leave is said to be available,' in reality, there have been zero cases for years, and such situations should not be left unaddressed.