17 Teachers Get Forced Transfers

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Seventeen teachers in Seoul have been transferred to other schools due to poor performance as assessed by their principals. The transfers mark the first time that school administrators have exercised their new authority to evaluate teachers and hand down punitive measures.

The moves are expected to be met with opposition from unionized teachers concerned with principals wielding too much power.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Friday a total of 3,947 teachers have been transferred to other schools for the coming semester. Education offices in cities and provinces regularly rotate teachers at public schools so that students can learn from a variety of teachers, while teachers can also experience different schools.

Of them, 17 were forced to leave their schools due to poor assessments from their principals.

"These cases show that principals have been empowered and that incompetent teachers can face disciplinary transfers if deemed necessary by their school head," said an official from the education office.

Nine teachers were transferred for being negligent on the job and three others for "incompetency" or causing complaints from students and parents. Among them is a math teacher who failed to solve a question asked by students.

Other teachers were transferred for such behavior as spreading rumors or being involved in corruption cases.

This move is in line with the Lee Myung-bak administration's policy to introduce competition among teachers and schools as an effort to improve the quality of public education. To this end, education authorities plan to introduce a teacher evaluation system from the spring semester through which teachers can be rewarded with incentives or face disciplinary actions based on their performance.

In addition, the government plans to amend the assessment system for school principals and vice principals so that those who perform poorly will be demoted to ordinary teaching positions.

Each city and provincial education office will rate schools and categorize them into three groups according to their performance, and teachers will receive bonuses based on individual performances and overall school achievements.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

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