Superintendent of Education Affairs Signs Document of Apology

Kim Won-bon, Superintendent of Gwangju Education Affairs, was urged by the Korea Teachers` & Educational Workers` Union (KTU) to acknowledge that he made a wrongful personnel decision and signed a document pledging that he would do his best to prevent similar things from happening, a revelation sparking controversy over the infringement upon the right to personnel decisions.

The story broke out when J Middle School, a member of KTU Gwangju, disclosed the document over its Web site on March 4.

The Gwangju Agency of Education Affairs named a 61-year-old man known as C as school master of J Middle School on Feb. 25 at the time of reshuffling on elementary and middle school level. C was working as a researcher in Gwangju Educational Science Institute.

After the announcement, however, 11 teachers from J School who are members of KTU came to visit Vice Superintendent Seo Gwang-su and Director Bae Ui-gu. They asked the agency to withdraw its decision pointing out, ˝C was warned by the agency for involvement in a number of bribery scandals three years ago.˝ The agency rejected their request saying, “The decision, once announced, is not retractable.”

Then head of KTU Gwangju Song Sun-jong called Vice Superintendent Suh on Feb. 27 and asked Superintendent Kim to sign a document confirming that the agency would do its best to prevent similar things from happening, citing ˝the decision could spark controversy in the region and teachers are vehemently opposing the appointment of C.˝

Song then sent two teachers from J Middle School and Deputy Director at KTU Gwangju to Suh to hand a document prepared by KTU Gwangju. Suh reported to Superintendent Kim at a meeting following morning. Kim signed the document and sent it to KTU Gwangju by fax.

The document includes four clauses, which are Superintendent Kim acknowledges that he made a wrong decision; Mr. C pledges both verbally and in written form that he will respect teachers and will not enforce something against educational ethics; the agency supervises Mr. C as a special case and reprimands him when any wrong doing is found; and Superintendent Kim makes it sure that similar things will not happen again.

Mr. C, on his part, also signed on Feb. 28 a document comprising 29 clauses demanding that he make an apology for his appointment and respect opinions of teachers in running the school.

˝We decided to name Mr. C as school master out of respect for the senior researcher who will soon retire,˝ explained Superintendent Kim. ˝I signed the document agreeing that how respected a candidate among teachers must be a priority rather than how old or how many points he scored.˝

˝I signed the document since I did not want to cause conflict with teachers,˝ said Mr. C. ˝I don`t want this thing to be seen as a major problem in school management. ˝

With the news spread, however, some school masters and parents are criticizing that KTU crossed the line to infringe upon the superintendent`s right to personnel decision. They suggest, ˝KTU is trying to exercise undue influence on the superintendent and school masters by using this case.˝

˝The document was designed to call for fairness in appointment and transparency in school management out of concern for the new school master once involved in bribery scandals,˝ said an official at KTU Gwangju. ˝We did not force Kim to sign the document, rather we discussed and shared opinions about the content.˝

Mr. C, the man at the center of the controversy, was cited by the agency for verbally abusing teachers and selecting board members without due procedures in May 2001 when he was serving as school master at H Middle School. Then, he was transferred to C Middle School but soon sent to the institute facing complaints from teachers at C Middle School.

shjung@donga.com