By Kim Bo-eun
Students at teachers colleges across the country on began a relay boycott of classes Wednesday demanding they be guaranteed employment.
The move follows announcements last month by education offices nationwide on a reduction in teacher recruitment for next year. The numbers were drastically cut because of the decreasing student population due to the low birthrate.
The dramatic cuts came as previous governments did not implement a gradual policy of reducing recruitment.
To make matters worse, there are already over 35,000 qualified teachers nationwide who passed the certification exam, but are waiting to be placed at schools due to the limited number of available slots. They have priority in placement over those who will pass the test for next year.
This has endangered job prospects for the students.
An association of teachers college students is calling for the government to establish long-term plans for a stable supply of teachers as well as decreasing the number of students per class.
The association is composed of students from teachers colleges, the Korea National University of Education’s elementary education department, Jeju National University’s college of education and Ewha Womans University’s elementary education department.
Seoul National University of Education students, who began the boycott Wednesday will skip classes until today.
Students of Jeonju, Daegu and Chinju national universities of education will follow the boycott, Friday; and Chuncheon, Gwangju and Gyeongin national universities of education, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Students of Busan and Gongju national universities of education and Jeju National University’s education college will follow, Thursday.
During the boycotts, the students will gather in front of regional education offices for protest rallies.
“The number of elementary school teachers to be recruited for next year, announced Aug. 3, fell by 2,200 from this year,” the association said.
“It only shows that the government ignored the calls of teachers college students to establish long-term plans for teacher supply.”
Earlier, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education proposed a one-class, two-teacher system to deal with the oversupply. However, the students are calling for the number of students per class to be reduced to the average of OECD member states, to create more slots for teachers.
The teacher recruitment announcement last month was a draft, and the exact number is to be finalized shortly.