Government, educators at odds on reform

With the recent string of large demonstrations held by educators belonging to various organizations such as the Korean Federation of Teacher's Association (KFTA) and the Korean Teacher's Union (KTU), the very foundation of the community of educators has been trembling.

The teachers have been fiercely opposing the government in connection with the lowered retirement age, the ban on collective agreement implementation, and the implementation of the seventh education process reform.

The university professors who are banned by the current laws from forming a labor union have brought together an action committee for the establishment of such a union, further expanding the instability from the elementary schools to the universities.

The government's lowering of the retirement age from 65 to 62 and the retrogressive civil servant pension age to 60 has been the source of much anxiety for educators. Adding to the anxiety is the government's proposal to foster competition among the teachers through such measures as rating of teachers based on ability.

However, of the 6,200 elementary school teachers who were retired due to the lowered retirement age, 4,700 returned to the schools as temporary teachers due to the shortage caused by the mass exodus.

"To meet the under-supply of teachers, the retirement age needs to be restored to 65 years," the KFTA public information section chief said.

While sharing the views of the KFTA, the KTU, however, admitted there might be a practical difficulty in restoring the retirement age.

For the university professors, the union has decided that the government's proposal for yearly contracts based on proven performance needs to be confronted as a collective group and has begun the initial steps to form a labor union of university professors.

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday concluded a collective agreement with the KTU for 15 provisions for the better treatment of teachers. However, with the disclosure that only seven of the provisions, such as compensation raises for homeroom teachers and specially assigned teachers, has been earmarked in next year's budget, the educators have accused the government of annulling the agreement.

"To accommodate all the provisions in the agreement, it would require an additional 1.55 trillion won in budget, and the provisions that relate to the budget and legality do not constitute the core of the agreement," the Ministry of Education responded. "It took a great deal of persuasion to obtain 792.4 billion won in budget and should not be underestimated."

The ministry further revealed that without the changes in the laws themselves, its hands were tied.

With the KFTA calling for a moratorium on implementation and the KTU calling for a complete abolition, the National Assembly administrative audit of the Ministry of Education regards the issue as imperative.

The seventh educational process reform seeks to promote creativity in students by designating the 10-year educational period from the elementary first grade to the first year in high school as the fundamental mandatory educational period, in which all students will follow an identical curriculum of 10 subjects. Students will be grouped depending on achievement. For the second and third years of high school, students will be allowed to select a narrow field of study of preference.

However, the association of educators opposes such a plan insisting that in the current situation (with an average of 38 students per class), such classification would only add to the hopelessness felt by underachieving students while fostering unnecessary competition among the overachievers.

Furthermore, such an elective educational curriculum could lead to teacher redundancy. Of the 19 similar subjects currently offered at high schools, an estimated 14,548 teachers might become redundant. On the other hand, to provide 20 new subjects without duplication, there is a shortage of an estimated 26,119 teachers and 4,000 or so classrooms.

"The redundant teachers will be placed in additional educational training for sub-majors," the Ministry of Education said. "Certain unsatisfactory aspects of the proposal will be corrected, but the implementation will not be delayed."

Spokesperson for the KTU Lee Kyung-Hee said: "Although the diversity in education is necessary, the current program has a danger of alienating about 80% of the students. Such re-education of teachers into other fields through short training could further add to the instability of the education system."

The problem on the whole seems to be the very lack of a solution that could satisfy both the teachers and the government. As such, the conflict between the two parties seems without an end in sight.

Lee In-Chul inchul@donga.com