By Jhoo Dong-chan
Teachers who oppose the government’s state authored history textbooks face a police investigation and disciplinary measures by the education authorities.
Officials at the Seoul Jongno Police Station said Tuesday that they have sent summonses to 84 leaders of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) who signed a statement opposing the government policy, including union head Byun Seong-ho.
Under the law, public school teachers, who are civil servants, are prohibited from taking part in collective political action. After the statement, the Ministry of Education filed a complaint against the 84 union members for violating the law as it applies to public servants.
This was the first time in six years ― since the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2009 ― for the ministry to file a complaint against all of the union leaders for publicly opposing government policy.
The police told the leaders to come to the station for questioning on Wednesday or Thursday.
A KTU spokesman said that they would not respond to the “improper summons.”
Separately from the union leaders, other teachers who signed the statement are expected to be disciplined by the education ministry. At the end of last month, a total of 21,379 teachers from 3,904 schools nationwide had signed the statement, including both KTU members and non-members.
The ministry said Monday that it has requested that regional education offices punish those teachers. Especially, it asked the offices to impose severe disciplinary action, such as suspension of duty or dismissal, on 22 key KTU figures.
It suggested the offices carry out the disciplinary action before Dec. 11.
However, a number of liberal education superintendents are expected to refuse the ministry’s demand, possibly resulting in a clash between the ministry and superintendents. Heads of regional education offices, not the ministry, have the authority to take disciplinary action against teachers.
“The teachers expressed their opinion from their educational perspectives, not political or ideological,” Min Byeong-hee, superintendant of the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education, told reporters.
But a ministry official said that it was obvious that those teachers violated the law by politically declaring themselves against the government’s move.
“If the superintendents do not punish those teachers, the ministry will withhold administrative and financial support from their districts,” he said.
The ministry also said it will even sue superintendents who refused to punish teachers for dereliction of duty.
On Oct. 29, the KTU issued the statement, calling the state-authored textbooks a “historic coup to return to the authoritarianism of the 1970s.”