Teachers avoid extra responsibilities after bullying prompts police action


A middle school in Gyeonggi Province has recently fallen short of homeroom teachers.

Despite repeated urges from the headmaster, few have stepped forward to take on the responsibility. The school had to fill the open positions with irregular contract-based teachers who conventionally have limited duties as specialized subject teachers.

The teachers are reluctant because the government has placed more responsibility on homeroom teachers regarding school violence and general affairs within the campus.

“Teachers are already heavily burdened with conducting classes, administrative duties, student counseling and more. Taking over a homeroom could be even more burdensome,” said a teacher at the school. She admitted that the police’s recent grilling of teachers over alleged negligence toward school violence has fueled the evasion.

Student suicides believed to have been caused by bullying prompted police to book two teachers on separate occasions for ignoring signs of assault. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has announced a set of guidelines imposing more responsibility on homeroom teachers for the overall management of students.

A group of victims’ parents has threatened to sue schools and teachers for breaching their duty to monitor the pupils’ demeanor on and off the campus.

The teachers resisted. They claim teachers should not bear the sole responsibility for school violence. They warned that more teachers would avoid taking any position requiring contact with students to evade legal responsibilities.

A care teacher in a high school in western Seoul recently stepped down from his position claiming he was fed up with the constant rift between the parents and students. No one dared to take over from him and the position ― which is responsible for school discipline ― may stay vacant for a while, insiders said.

“Care teachers have been blamed for juvenile delinquencies and now that he may face police interrogation or legal action in the future, he thought he had enough,” a teacher at the school said.

The Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association on Thursday visited the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to protest the investigation.

“This could be a violation of teachers’ rights,” Ahn Yang-ok, the president of the group, said.

Teachers argue that responsibility for students’ problems should be shared among the school, family and society as a whole.

An elementary school teacher in southern Seoul said the government should first come up with measures to reduce the administrative burden on teachers to let them focus more on students.

“Also, teachers should be granted more authority in school affairs. Teachers should not be afraid to monitor and scold their students as well as to intervene at the scene of irregularities. Under the current system that seems unlikely,” she said.

The Education Ministry on Sunday said it would release guidelines for measures against school violence. It is also considering the adoption of a dual homeroom teacher system, designating two teachers per class to reduce the burden of responsibility placed on individual teachers.

“We hope this could settle the teachers’ anxieties,” a ministry official was quoted as telling a local daily.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)