Authorities seek bill to include violation of teachers’ authority in students’ school reports

The South Korean Education Ministry announced that it would seek to hold accountable students who infringe on teachers’ authority and record details in their school reports. The education authorities started to find ways to enhance teachers’ authority amid public anger following the suicide of a first-grade homeroom teacher in Seochu-gu, Seoul.

"We have studied how to improve the school system so that any violations of teachers’ authority can be recorded in the accused students’ school reports and fair, just disciplinary measures taken by teachers will not be considered child abuse,” an official at the Education Ministry told The Dong-A Ilbo on Sunday. "The ministry will talk to the National Assembly based on research results to revise relevant laws."

As of now, there are a couple of bills tabled at the National Assembly, including a proposal to improve teachers’ status by recording violations of their authority in school reports; and a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to exclude behavioral guidance within relevant acts and school regulations from the range of child abuse. There needs to be cooperative action on the opposite party's side to pass the pending bills, given that it takes up more than the majority of the legislative body.

The education ministry explained that it would secure a cause to revise the Students Human Rights Ordinance if teachers’ authority and reasons of immunity are enshrined in law. It is up to superintendents of education in city and municipal governments and metropolitan councils to revise the ordinance. If they veto a revision, there is no way of making amends with the Students Human Rights Ordinance. Given this, the education ministry intends to first get revised higher statutes, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Special Act on the Improvement of Teachers’ Status and the Protection of Their Educational Activities, to improve the ordinance. Based on the principle by which the higher laws take priority, ordinances should not exceed acts. If the acts in question are revised to give teachers more power, any clauses of the ordinance will become invalid. Professor Park Ju-hyung at the Department of Education of Gyeongin National University of Education advised that there should be the right balance between teachers’ authority and students’ human rights.


Sung-Min Park min@donga.com · Ye-Na Choi yena@donga.com