By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The government plans to introduce a controversial teacher evaluation system next year, which would mandate teachers with poor assessments to undergo retraining.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology plans to identify 400 teachers who ranked in the bottom 0.1 percent of the evaluation and have them removed from classrooms to participate in special training programs the following year.
Teachers who rank in the lowest level for three consecutive years would be expelled, while those who rank in the top 0.1 percent would receive the incentive of taking a year off to study and research, as well as advantages in personnel management.
The ministry will introduce the system at public schools next year. The government has yet to settle on a specific number of teachers to undergo retraining.
The ministry said, "We are considering introducing a tailor-made training program for teachers in accordance with the evaluation system, but we haven't discussed how many teachers will participate in the program or how to sort out the trainees."
The ministry has worked over the past five years to introduce the evaluation system to boost competition among teachers and improve the quality of public education. It has selected some 1,500 pilot schools for the system.
Under the system, principals and colleagues, as well as parents, will grade teachers.
However, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union and teachers' associations oppose the plan.
"The government has not made objective criteria for the evaluation, so there is a high possibility that the system can be abused by senior teachers and principals as a means to punish progressive teachers. It will demoralize teachers," said Eum Min-yong, spokesman of the union.
The conservative Korean Federation of Teachers Association supports the system in principle but says the authorities should approach with caution when it comes to linking assessment results to wages and promotion.
Parents' groups are demanding that the government link the evaluation to personnel management, claiming that without such measures, the assessment is of little use.
Related bills for the teacher evaluation are currently pending at the National Assembly.
Education, Science and Technology Minister Ahn Byong-man has said that results of the evaluations will be reflected in the wages and promotions of teachers.
He has also made it clear that the government will implement the system next year regardless of the passage of the related bills at the National Assembly.