The suicide rate among the country's primary and secondary school teachers nearly doubled on-year in 2011, data showed Wednesday, amid persisting concerns over their weakened authority to maintain discipline in the classroom.
According to the education ministry data submitted to Rep. Yoo Eun-hye of the main opposition Democratic United Party, a total of 31 primary, middle and high school teachers took their own lives last year, up from 17 the previous year.
The suicide rate among teachers has been on the rise over the past four years: 7.6 out of every 100,000 teachers killed themselves in 2011, up from 4.5 in 2010, and 4.3 in 2009, and 2.4 in 2008, the data showed.
"Tough environments at school seem to be putting both students and teachers under stress," said an official of Rep. Yoo's office. "Education authorities need to grasp what is going on in classrooms."
According to separate health ministry data, suicide was the No. 1 cause of death for the country's adolescents in 2010. Some 8.3 young people aged 15-19 out of 100,000 took their own life during the year, and the number has nearly doubled over the past decade, it showed.
Experts say the trend is largely attributed to changes in circumstances surrounding public education where the authorities have adopted several performance appraisals of schools, and teachers have more difficulty in guiding students.
"Teachers seem distressed by the increased workload in tandem with diminished authority among students," an education ministry official said.
Korea is notorious for its high suicide rate, as an average of 33.5 people per 100,000 took their own lives in 2010, which came in 2.6 times higher than the average for countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to government data. (Yonhap)