By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Teachers appear to be divided over candlelit vigils being held to protest American beef imports.

Education authorities Wednesday instructed heads of schools nationwide to take steps to stop groundless rumors over the imports. They also told teachers to stop students from participating in candlelit vigils or rallies against U.S. beef.

The Ministry of Education and Science suspects that many progressive teachers are ``encouraging'' young students to go on the vigils. However, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) criticized the government for telling teachers to discourage students from going to the streets, without verifying the safety of American beef.

The union has also been highly critical of President Lee Myung-bak's administration for ``blindly adopting free-market'' education policies.

The ministry met with the heads of 16 city and provincial education offices and asked them to ensure factual information about mad cow disease was disseminated to all schools.

The meeting was held as about 60 percent of the participants in the recent candlelit vigils were middle-and high-school students.

``Education Minister Kim Do-yeon asked teachers to conduct classes on the safety of American beef and mad cow disease as soon as experts from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries produce a scientific report,'' an education ministry official said.

Kim has also urged teachers to discourage students from participating in the rallies for their own safety.

``Groundless rumors are luring students through mobile phone text messages and Internet articles. The government cannot stand idly by anymore,'' the official said. ``Students are scared that beef imports will lead them to contract the human equivalent of mad cow disease and kill them,'' he said.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will invite experts on mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), to instruct teachers about it true nature. They will then inform students in their classrooms. Also about 600 educators will show up at any vigils to ask the students to return home.

A perceived fear of U.S. beef has spread fast among teenagers and driven them to call for their right not to eat the meat, according to observers.

Police began to investigate the origins of a mobile phone text message which said, ``First victim of mad cow disease found on May 2.''

Many rumors have embarrassed the two-month old Lee Myung-bak administration, starting with the campaign on the ``safety'' of the beef. But the more the government emphasizes safety issues, the more public skepticism grows.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr