Education Ministry characterizes malicious complaints as infringement of teachers’ rights

In the wake of a tragic incident involving the suicide of an elementary school teacher, the Ministry of Education has taken action to address the serious issue of harassment that teachers often face. The ministry announced that it would amend a public notice to include “malicious complaints from parents and custodians of students” as one of the types of infringement on teachers’ rights.

An official from the education ministry stated, “We will explicitly classify malicious complaints from parents as a violation of teachers’ rights in the public notice.” The public notice outlines acts constituting an infringement of educational activities and seven corresponding countermeasures ranging from in-school community service to expulsion.

The public notice currently outlines six types of violations of teachers’ rights, including unfairly intervening in a teacher’s educational activities, sexual harassment causing humiliation or disgust, unauthorized recording, photographing, or video recording and distribution, and disobedience to reasonable disciplinary instructions. The addition of malicious complaints from parents to this list aims to address the challenges faced by teachers in dealing with such issues.

Previously, convening a teachers’ rights protection committee based on malicious complaints from parents was difficult, as parents were not considered members of the school community. However, with this amendment, the number of parents considered offenders of teachers’ rights violations is expected to rise significantly, as most infringement cases are committed by parents. Consequently, once a teacher files a request, the teachers’ rights protection committee will be convened, potentially leading to a surge in the number of cases addressed.

Vice Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon highlighted the recent tragedy and indicated malicious complaints as a possible cause of the teacher’s death. He emphasized the ministry’s commitment to improving the current system that places the burden of dealing with such complaints solely on the teacher. To address this, the Ministry of Education will issue guidelines for parents on appropriate conduct when approaching teachers via telephone, visitation, or social media. Additionally, the ministry will provide instructions that complaints should be directed to a designated person in charge, rather than directly filed against the teachers.


Ye-Na Choi yena@donga.com