Aspiring teachers lack sex crime awareness

By Bahk Eun-ji

Education colleges are failing to provide proper courses on the prevention of sexual harassment and assaults to would-be teachers, despite growing revelations that male students at the schools are embroiled in such cases, showing their misogyny and insensitivity to sexual violence.

The gate of Seoul National University of Education /Korea Times file

According to data submitted to Rep. Yeo Yeong-gug of the minor Justice Party from the Ministry of Education, Wednesday, only one out of 11 education colleges and universities nationwide ― Chuncheon National University of Education ― provided a sexual harassment prevention course this year.

Cheongju National University of Education used to run such a course but closed it this year, although it has been found recently that male students there shared sexually abusive comments about their female peers and graded their appearance in group chats.

Most other schools were offering several hours of special lectures about sexual violence prevention, usually during freshmen orientation. Even the lecture hours have fallen: the 11 schools provided 5.1 hours of lectures on the topic on average in 2017, but this was cut to 4.9 hours in 2018 and 3.3 hours in 2019.

Contrary to the decreasing lectures, sexual violence cases at the schools have been increasing, from nine each in 2017 and 2018, to 11 as of this May.

The number of staffers who exclusively handle sexual violence cases in the schools is also far from adequate, at 1.7 persons per school on average.

For better education on the issue, the ministry and relevant authorities agreed in June to revise laws to create a mandatory course on sexual harassment and sexual abuse prevention in education schools nationwide. The revision, which will take effect as early as next year, will also ban those found guilty of sexual violence during their college days from becoming teachers.

These measures followed several harassment cases at the schools, where male students judged female students on their appearance and shared sexually abusive comments about them with their photographs in group chat conversations. Some of the former students, who are now teachers, even made such comments about young female students they were teaching.

Regarding one such case at Seoul National University of Education, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said Wednesday it confirmed 18 former and incumbent male students were participants in the group chat.

Ten of them were current teachers, and eight had passed the state exam to become teachers and would start their careers soon. The office imposed severe disciplinary action on four of them, light action on seven and warnings to three. Four others were cleared.