More parents request for the replacement of a homeroom teacher

As teachers lose power in classroom and students and their parents have increased awareness about their rights, more and more requests wanting to change their child’s homeroom teacher are made at schools. Half of the teachers in elementary schools in the Seoul Metropolitan Area experienced such request or saw this happen.

According to the survey of 899 elementary school students in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon with the Korea Federation of Teachers’ Associations, 8.5 percent of the respondents said that they experienced the replacement request in person. Up to 44.9 percent said that they saw such request is made to a teacher who was close to the respondent.

Unfortunately, such phenomenon is decreasing teachers’ morale significantly. As high as 56.1 percent said that they are under pressure in teaching and guiding students because they are fearful and stressed, and 31.5 percent said they considered quitting because they have doubts about their job.

More than half the respondents said that they had no choice but to change the homeroom teacher (53.8 percent) due to repeated requests, which shows that a series of calls would often lead to the actual replacement.

The requests have been on the rise every year. As many as 23.5 percent said they suffer from it this year (now), and 18.8 percent said they did last year. Teachers said “helicopter parents” are the most significant source of conflicts, mentioning the most common reason (30.5 percent) for the replacement is that the teacher does not pay attention to their child while teaching or guiding students.

임우선기자 imsun@donga.com