Yoon apologizes for safety problems, monsoon losses and classroom chaos

President Yoon Suk Yeol promised to eradicate "cartels" that threaten safety, ensure diligent fiscal management for greater aid to people in need, and expedite the enforcement of decrees that enhance teachers' authority in the second semester.

President Yoon Suk Yeol at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday apologized for recent troubles involving substandard apartments, deaths and damage caused by monsoon downpours and the perceived collapse of teachers' classroom authority.

He urged the government to eradicate what he called the construction industry "cartels" that threaten the safety of apartment dwellers and expand financial aid to people affected by the recent rainfall, including the families of people killed in floods and landslides.

But most of all, Yoon urged the Ministry of Education to quickly implement an enforcement decree to enhance teachers’ authority so that it could be practically enforced in the second semester.

He stressed the need to correct past corruption and wrongful practices at the heart of all recent problems.

“Safety is more important than profit,” Yoon said during the cabinet meeting.

“Recently the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Land and Housing Corporation [LH] conducted a safety inspection on all LH commissioned apartments whose parking garages were built with flat slab structures.

“The defective constructions revealed have sparked public concern.”

Yoon particularly pointed to a recent case that revealed faults in the entire building process, from design to construction and supervision.

The government announced Monday that it found shoddy construction in the parking lots of 15 apartment complexes constructed by GS Engineering and Construction (GS E&G) and other companies.

The apartments' steel reinforcements failed to meet construction guidelines.

The problem came to the fore in April when a basement parking lot of an apartment complex under construction in Geomdan-dong, Incheon, collapsed.

The apartment was being built by GS E&G.

Yoon blamed a “cartel” for the faulty construction.

“People point out that the fundamental reason behind the problem [of defects during construction] is the profiteering cartel in the construction industry,” Yoon said. “Our government is an anti-cartel government. If we do not break profiteering and corruption cartels, innovation and reform will be impossible.”

He also blamed the previous administration for the construction problems.

“Design errors, faulty construction and inadequate supervision of basement parking lots constructed using flat slab structures in apartments where people currently live all happened before we assumed office,” Yoon said.

The president likewise contrasted his government's swift expansion of aid to people affected by last month's monsoon rains with the previous administration's misuse of government funds.

He said, "The government has been boldly restructuring profit-driven cartel projects [funded by the government] and projects based on populism to win votes to provide more support to people facing difficulties."

He added that maintaining tight fiscal policies — even under pressure from the opposition to spend money — is to quickly allocate sufficient government funds to people in need.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety on Monday announced it will provide a maximum of 67 million won ($52,000) of additional funding on top of the 20 to 36 million won previously allocated for disaster relief for people who lost their homes in recent heavy rains.

Thus, under the program, a person could receive as much as 103 million won.

The government is also doubling the amount provided to refurbish flooded homes, from 3 million won to 6 million won. The increase is to help people replace damaged electronic goods and furniture.

Small shop owners whose stores were damaged by the rain could get as much as 7 million won from the government, more than double the previous 3 million won.

Shop owners may also receive an additional 2 million won from the provincial or city government.

Yoon urged the government to quickly implement measures to reinforce teachers’ classroom authority, which teachers' groups allege has collapsed due to an undue focus on students' rights.

“If a law, which is to maintain rule and order, is prevented from being carried out under the name of human rights, it could rather violate others’ human rights,” Yoon said.

“If the teachers’ rights are not properly established in class, the students’ rights themselves could end up as empty words."

He added that teachers' rights are about establishing order in the classroom, and without them, "the rights of other students, including their right to learn, might not be guaranteed.”

He said that letting students break regulations under the guise of students’ rights is the same as allowing illegal acts to harm social order in the name of human rights.

Yoon urged the Education Ministry to quickly finish the process of implementing the teachers’ rights enforcement decree approved by the Cabinet in June.

The Cabinet on June 20 approved an enforcement decree that included an article allowing teachers to not only talk with misbehaving students but also warn, discipline and admonish them.

This change was welcomed by the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations (KFTA).

“The fundamental purpose of the changes in the statute is to restore flagging teachers' authority and collapsed classrooms,” the teachers’ union said in a statement in June. “The remaining task is for the Education Ministry to create a standardized guideline that makes it clear on the methods and scope of immediate and practical guidance in case of violations of teachers’ rights, such as a student disrupting class.”

The issue of collapsing teachers’ authority became a national controversy after a first-grade teacher at Seo 2 Elementary School took her own life in a classroom last month.

Teachers' groups allege that harassment by the parents of the students involved in an incident of classroom violence drove the teacher to suicide.

Though students have enjoyed stronger protections against abuse in recent years, teachers conversely now face limitations in their ability to control classrooms.

Some teachers have even faced charges of child abuse after raising their voices, grabbing a student's arm or slamming a desk.

Teachers who inflict corporal punishment face up to five years in jail or a fine of 50 million won.

According to the KFTA, of the 513 complaints that teachers reported to the association, nearly half, or 238, regarded parents of the students.

That far exceeds the 64 that regarded students themselves.

“There is a surge in unreasonable reports of child abuse against teachers as the parents themselves don’t have to face the consequences,” said a KFTA official. “As such, teachers avoid giving guidance counseling.”

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]