Restoring teachers’ authority

School education is accomplished through mutual trust and respect.

Lee Soo-jeongThe author is a professor of the department of teacher education at Dankook University. As members of the educational community, what rights and responsibilities do teachers and students have — and what role should parents play as another main agent of education? The recent suicide of an elementary school teacher in Seoul’s Seocho District revealed fundamental problems in our society and is also a catalyst publicizing the accumulated contradictions in the educational field.

The crisis should be understood as a bottleneck phenomenon caused by a combination of social and cultural factors such as the relationship between teachers and students that have changed from the past and changed the attitudes of students and parents, as well as the problems associated with laws, systems and policies, including the Student Bill of Rights.

The fundamental reason behind the destroyed authority of teachers lies in the changed attitudes of students and parents. Students are more aware of their rights and became more individualistic. Furthermore, they often think lightly of school classes as they are excessively dependent upon cram schools and tutoring. Therefore, they are less accepting of school teachers’ lessons. In a change from their parents, who respected even their teachers’ shadows, highly educated parents these days have lesser respects toward their children’s teachers.

In addition to the changed attitudes of students and parents, the limits of the Student Bill of Rights and laws governing child abuse aggravated the problem. The intention of the Bill of Rights to guarantee and protect students ‘ rights are understandable. However, we need to seriously consider whether we need a separate Student Bill of Rights, although the country already has many legal measures to guarantee and protect human rights including the Constitution.

From the beginning, there were concerns that the Student Bill of Rights contained some ambiguous provisions and there were no measures to counter the problems that could arise from such clauses. For example, the bill stressed the privacy of students by barring the inspection and confiscation of students’ belongings, but it does not mention the teachers’ authority to sanction the students for legitimate life discipline and education.

After the students’ rights were emphasized, society started applying the concept of child abuse in the Child Welfare Act to teachers, and teachers who issued legitimate disciplinary actions to their students faced complaints. Because there was no specific clause governing psychological violence — considered a form of child abuse — teachers were forced to act passively in guiding students. The Educational Officials Act governing school teachers also allows the schools to dismiss teachers from their jobs if they are accused of child abuse. Teachers are now at risk of dismissal when students simply claim that they suffered psychological violence.

Teachers’ and students’ rights are not incompatible. When a teacher cannot stop a student from obstructing a lesson, students’ rights cannot be protected. It is self-evident that everyone’s rights will be protected when everyone fulfills their duties.

The related regulations and systems, including the Student Bill of Rights, must be urgently overhauled. As long as the bill’s intent is not undermined, it is necessary to stipulate the responsibilities and duties students must abide by while specifying the teachers’ authority and rights for proper education and discipline. Provisions that contradict the law stipulating the school principals’ authority to punish students must be reconsidered.

In advanced countries, students’ mobile phones are collected by teachers during lessons. In the United States, schools have rights to give failing grades to students for their behavior or file criminal complaints against their parents for negligence. We can note such examples.

By improving the regulations and systems governing child abuse, we must remove the possibility of an innocent victim. We also must draw up specific guidelines to counter possible complaints from parents.

Most of all, it is important to recognize the problems at schools must be considered as conflicts of educational agents, rather than forcing individual teachers to resolve them on their own, and build a system and process to resolve them. Schools and educational offices should establish mediation committees so that individual teachers face fewer malicious complaints and lawsuits.

School education is accomplished through mutual trust and respect among teachers, students and parents. It is fortunate that we now face the reality of destroyed teachers’ authority. We hope that the government will use this opportunity to establish and maintain the related laws and systems with a strong determination to rebuild school education.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.