Reports on teachers’ rights infringement rose sharply by 2,000 cases last year

The number of reports on teacher rights violations increased sharply this year with higher public awareness after a teacher at Seoi Elementary School took her own life due to harassment by parents. However, the most common punishment for students behaving disrespectfully towards teachers is still considered too light, being ‘school service.’

According to the Ministry of Education on Wednesday, the number of cases held by the Elementary, Middle, and High School Rights Protection Committee last year was 5,050, a 66% increase from the previous year. The committee handled 2,662 cases in 2019, which dropped to 1,197 cases in 2020 during the pandemic. The figure increased to 2,269 cases in 2021 and 3,035 cases in 2022. The education committee views that the increase of 2,000 reports in one year is impacted by the Seoi Elementary School incident, even considering the growth of cases handled by the committee.

To strengthen teaching authority, schools and local education support offices hosted the committee meetings. From March 28 to the end of June, the number of committee meetings reached 1,364.

Among the reports, ‘insults and defamation’ (27.3%) were the most common, followed by ‘interfering educational activities’ (26.2%) and ‘assault with injury’ (14.9%). Violations of educational activities by students accounted for most cases at 89.3% (1,218 cases), while the ratio of violations by parents was 10.7% (146 cases).

The most common punishment for student violators was ‘school service’ (28.7%), the lightest level of punishment, followed by ‘suspension (26.5%)’ and ‘community service’ (18.2%). ‘School transfer’ was 8.9%, and ‘expulsion’ was 0.2%.

The acquittal ratio of teachers accused of child abuse also increased since mandating submission of a written opinion to the Superintendent of Education when a teacher is investigated for child abuse. As of June this year, 77.4% of cases (165 cases) were not filed or acquitted among the 213 cases submitted to the Superintendent of Education, which is significantly high considering the acquittal ratio of 59.2% in 2022.

The Ministry of Education and the National Association of Superintendents of Education held a memorial ceremony at the Ulsan Tani Bay Hotel to commemorate the first anniversary of the Seoi Elementary School teacher's death and adopted a ‘Joint Declaration for the Protection of Educational Activities.’


여근호 기자 yeoroot@donga.com