The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and a national teachers’ group announced plans Thursday to protect teachers’ rights by providing legal assistance and counseling.

In response to growing complaints by teachers of abuse by students and their parents, the SMOE said it had earmarked 220 million won ($200,000) to protect teachers from abuse. The initiative was launched with the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association, Korea’s largest conservative teachers’ group.

“I hope this plan will be a turning point for protecting teachers’ rights, allowing them to concentrate on teaching. This will also help establish a foundation of mutual trust and respect among teachers, students and parents,” said Seoul Education Chief Cho Hi-yeon at a press conference held at the SMOE office.

The new plan centers on operating the Teachers Rights Protection Support Center, which previously only existed within SMOE, at district-level education offices to make help more accessible for teachers. The center will provide counseling services and support for possible litigation processes.

Education authorities will also commission 38 lawyers to provide legal consultation to teachers. The phone consulting service ― introduced in September of last year ― will be free, while fees for face-to-face consulting will be charged to the SMOE.

The ideal option, however, would be to prevent legal disputes, noted KFTA chief Ahn Yang-ok. To help work out amicable solutions to teacher-parent discord, SMOE is planning to create a consulting team of retired education workers with leadership or counseling experience, such as former principals and school counselors.

“Legal support will be provided to teachers in the case of lawsuits, but the most important thing is to reach an agreement before going to court. For this, the consulting team (of retired teachers) will help with their experience and wisdom before engaging in a legal battle,” Ahn said.

But some argued that the 220 million won budget ― which is a tiny fraction of the 7.6 trillion won allocated to the SMOE in 2015 ― would not be enough to provide support to all the city’s teachers. There are more than 70,000 teachers in Seoul, meaning the funding provides a meager 3,000 won per teacher.

Further, the budget for legal consultation service is only 2.75 million won, and the SMOE does not yet have a backup plan when the funding runs out.

“We acknowledge that the money we’ve set aside is not sufficient to address the issue of teachers’ rights protection. The budget (for teacher protection) will have to gradually increase,” said an SMOE official.

A recent report by Sungkyunkwan University professor Yang Jung-ho showed that 20 percent of Korean teachers regretted their choice of job, the highest figure among all members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the KFTA, on average 1,500 cases of teacher rights violations occurred annually from 2011 to 2013, and 643 cases were reported in first semester of 2014.

The KFTA report showed that teachers were being subject to physical, verbal violence and even sexual harassment.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)