The new head of the education board in Seoul kicked off a clean-up campaign to root out die-hard corruption at schools. The board decided to fire 57 school headmasters for taking bribes. Among them, up to 40 face criminal indictment.
The school headmasters allegedly received kickbacks from travel agencies in return for contracts for school excursions.
This is in addition to the 50 principals disciplined or dismissed for receiving money in return for promotions and awarding contracts to builders.
This is an unprecedented show of disciplinary action in Seoul. It is in line with a `strikeout' system introduced early this year. Under the rule, recipients of bribes face dismissal, without exception.
Kwak Noh-hyun, liberal superintendent of the Seoul Education Board, said he would no longer tolerate leniency and magnanimity in dealing with irregularities. He said bribe-mongering teachers should no longer work on campuses. He vowed to punish corrupt teachers without exception in the future.
Without uprooting corruption in schools, parents will not trust teachers and normalizing public education would become impossible. The current dismal situation in public education is attributable to turning a blind eye to campus irregularities.
Whenever bribery scandals erupt, teachers say they are just isolated cases.
An NGO has published a book chronicling cases of irregularities involving teachers. The book features the behavior and attitudes of teachers and incidents of corruption. Teachers contend that the revelations are biased, but most of the cases are convincing enough for parents and students.
The massive dismissals of corrupt school masters should not demoralize the majority of educators.