By Kang Shin-who
Corporal punishment will be banned at schools in Gyeonggi Province from next year. The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education said Sunday that it will introduce alternative discipline, including community service activities.
The office will submit a bill prohibiting physical punishment of students to the provincial council in October. It plans to make it effective from the coming spring semester.
“It will take some time for schools to implement alternative punishment and set their own guidelines,” said Kim Sang-gon, education superintendent of the province.
Under the plan, the office will encourage schools to form a committee for students’ rights and create education programs to cope with the new regulations. In addition, human rights officials will be named at each school and the authorities will be counseled by education research institutes in creating alternative plans.
“Verbal and physical violence are disappearing in base camp culture, so schools can also no longer tolerate physical punishment in the name of education,” Kim said. “(Banning corporal punishment) will be helpful for students to think creatively and study independently.”
The office will continue to discuss with teachers’ groups over the issue. The Korean Federation of Teacher’s Associations, the nation’s largest conservative teachers’ group, opposes the ban on corporal punishment. The association claims that the ban will weaken teachers’ authority to curb unethical and problematic students.
The current Education Law acknowledges the need for teachers to use corporal punishment “only for educational purposes.”
In the meantime, South Chungcheong Province is planning to provide all elementary school students in the region with free meals from next year.
The provincial government will extend the free meal program to middle school students.
It plans to set up an ordinance for the free meal program and will secure the budget by the end of the year.
Under the plan, some 139,000 students at 430 primary schools will benefit immediately and about 78,600 at 430 secondary schools will be beneficiaries from 2012.
Approximately 105 billion won ($88.4 million) ― 62.5 billion won for elementary schools and 42.5 billion won for middle schools ― is needed for the project.