Special Appointments for Democracy Movement-Related Persons

As the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is trying to revise a private school law that allows people related to the Democracy Movement of Korea to get special priority to be teachers, private schools are opposing the revision, arguing that it is an infringement of the right to implement their own personnel management policies.

The education ministry announced on August 6, “We decided to revise the private law based on proposals regarding personnel management from the Municipal Committee of the Superintendent of Education Affairs and the Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union, and we are collecting opinions.”

The ministry plans to add a regulation in the revised bill that allows private schools to employ teachers who have reinstatement notices from the Commission for Democratization. The proposal was submitted by the Korean Teachers and Education Worker’s Union during a policy talk with the education ministry.

Among 1,858 people who used to be teachers but who were discharged due to the movement of teachers and education worker’s union, or due to expulsions from teachers’ college or colleges of education before 1991, 1,696 people achieved recognition after applying to the commission to get recognition related to the democracy movement.

24 people got reinstatement notices from the commission, and eight people, including two from public schools and six from private schools, have still not been reinstated.

However the Rules for the Public Educational Personnel and Staff Act, the Government Official Act, and the Municipal Official Act do not include any regulations regarding special appointments for democracy movement-related persons, and some point out that stipulating regulations in the private school law are constitutionally inappropriate.

Hwang Nak-hyeon, secretary general of the Korea Private School Association, said, “It is not proper for the education ministry to establish a base of special appointments for restricted numbers of personnel, and the new regulations of the special appointment should be applied equally to both the private law and the Rules for the Public Educational Personnel and Staff Act.”

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