Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
President urges ministry to set up guidelines to bolster teachers' authority
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
Yoon slams 'cartel' in construction industry
By Nam Hyun-woo
President Yoon Suk Yeol urged the Ministry of Education to “immediately set up” administrative guidelines to protect teachers' classroom authority, amid nationwide uproar from teachers about the harsh working conditions they face from demanding parents following the suicide of a fellow teacher.
“Leaving students who violate rules unpunished under the pretext of human rights is no different from tolerating criminal acts that undermine social order,” Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday.
“The Ministry of Education should establish guidelines immediately so that they can be implemented at schools from the second semester of this year.”
His remarks came amid multiple protests staged by teachers, calling for reform of the public education system, after a teacher in her 20s took her own life inside her classroom in Seoul's Seocho District. Although the police investigation continues into the death of the teacher, it has been speculated that she suffered verbal complaints from overly concerned parents regarding some of her students both in and outside of her working hours.
Teachers have expressed concerns that their legitimate authority to offer guidance on students' personal development and behavior is being undermined by an increasing number of parental complaints. Some of these complaints have even led to lawsuits against teachers for alleged child abuse, despite teachers, by and large, implementing appropriate and fair disciplinary measures.
Amid the uproar from educators, the government has been seeking ways to improve teachers' authority, with Yoon saying last week that “the education ministry will set up guidelines related to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and revise “unreasonable” student welfare ordinances.
The educational ordinances are municipalities' own ordinances that are related to student welfare, highlighted by banning any kind of physical and verbal violence including certain punishments. Seoul, Gwangju, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province and some other regions have been implementing respective ordinances, which have similar measures, mostly backed by liberal politicians and education superintendents.
For example, a Gyeonggi Province ordinance even prohibits teachers from meting out punishment points to children who misbehaved.
Despite debates, the ordinances have been often mentioned as one of the reasons for weakening teachers' authority. A survey conducted by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, July 25 and 26, found that 83.1 percent of 32,951 members believe the ordinances have undermined teachers' authority.
Teachers hold banners during a sit-in protest in Jongno District, Seoul, July 29. They called for reform of public education and bolstering of teachers' authority. Yonhap
Against this backdrop, Yoon's comments have been interpreted as his administration believing that the ordinances have undermined the authority of teachers too much.
“Using the pretext of human rights to obstruct the enforcement of laws for maintaining rules and order actually infringes on the rights of citizens,” Yoon said. “Likewise, without the establishment of teacher authority, discussions about students' rights become empty words.”
The Yoon administration already amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act last year and approved the revised enforcement decree of the act in June to allow teachers to guide students with counseling, warning and disciplinary measures.
If the education ministry sets up a guideline, it will contain a detailed scope and measures of teachers' guidance and will stand as a higher-level rule over the ordinances. This will effectively override the ordinances' regulation of teachers, allowing teachers to guide students properly, the presidential office said.
A man watches TV at his subdivided flat in Yongsan District, Seoul, Monday, when the heatwave alert was issued across the city. Yonhap
Cartels
During the Cabinet meeting, Yoon also demanded the government be thorough in its measures on addressing the safety concerns of some carelessly constructed apartment complexes, citing “cartels with vested rights” as the reasons.
“The flat-plate structure underground parking lots of the problematic apartments were all plagued with problems such as design errors, poor construction and inadequate supervision. And all of these occurred before our government was established,” Yoon said.
“These problems have been attributed to the cartels of vested interests in the construction industry.”
The government plans to conduct safety inspections of all new flat-plate structure apartment complexes after the recent collapse of an apartment's parking lot due to a lack of rebar being used. Following the incident, reports stated that many apartment complexes across the country also had beamless underground parking lots, despite the buildings above the parking lots having heavy loads.
“Our government is an anti-cartel government,” Yoon said. “Without eradicating the cartels of vested interests, no innovation or reform will be attainable.”
The president also said his administration is reorganizing “businesses related to cartels with vested interests and electoral patronage projects” to save expenditure and expand welfare programs for the underprivileged who are suffering from the heat wave.
In recent months, Yoon has consistently emphasized his commitment to combating what he refers to as cartels across a wide range of sectors, saying that groups are seeking to protect their vested interests in various fields such as education, finance, communication, technology and construction.
Despite Yoon's persistent use of the term "cartels" in multiple sectors, questions still linger regarding the specific definition of the term and which entities he is specifically targeting. Concerns are also growing that the president may end up establishing an “us-versus-them narrative” and potentially deepen divisions between his supporters and critics.