Teachers to be punished for campaign

Some 60 unionized teachers will be subject to stern punishment for leading the issuance of an antigovernment statement in June and July, which violated the law banning their collective action and political activities.

With 74 members of the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers` Union referred to disciplinary committees, officials said yesterday that 18 would be dismissed and 40 would be suspended for three months, as they were found to be involved in the campaign.

Of the remaining 16 teachers, 11 at private schools are to be punished by individual foundations and the procedures on other five were still underway, officials said.

It is the first time that teachers have been punished in such a large number since the 1989 establishment of the KTEU, which represents 80,000 teachers nationwide.



In 2007, some 192 members were reprimanded or had pay docked for staging a campaign against a new teacher evaluation system, with no severe punishment imposed. In October last year, seven teachers were dismissed or suspended when they opposed a nationwide scholarship test.

"Fearing that their decision could trigger resistance from the teachers` group, education offices have postponed their official announcement so far," said an official at a local education office. "(According to the guidelines of the Education Ministry), announcements will start to be made from this week."

During the summer, some KTEU leaders issued antigovernment statements with tens of thousands of teachers signing. The statement berated the Lee Myung-bak administration for oppressing democracy and criticized its educational policies for driving students into cutthroat competition in tests at the expense of sound education and skyrocketing private education costs.

The union was following professors, religious leaders, lawyers, writers, activists and students in a nationwide campaign protesting what they called government repression of democracy and civil liberties.

The Education Ministry has taken a tough line, declaring the issuance as a clear breach of the law banning teachers` collective action and political activities.

(jylee@heraldm.com)





By Lee Ji-yoon