“Does the teacher have to do accounting, too?” Complaints from Neulbom Schools

Representatives of the Daejeon Teachers’ Union urge the Ministry of Education to cancel the operation of Neulbom Schools in front of the ministry on February 28. Courtesy of the Daejeon Teachers’ Union

Since March, A, a teacher who works at a Neulbom Pilot School in Daejeon, has been in charge of programs at the Neulbom School in addition to the school tasks she had already been overseeing, because the school does not have anyone exclusively in charge of the Neulbom program. A is worried, because she has to handle the accounting work related to the Neulbom School as well as prepare a separate space for the Neulbom School program.

The Neulbom School refers to an integrated education and care service provided before and after regular school hours for students who wish to attend, using various educational resources inside and outside the school. It’s a policy implemented by the incumbent government to strengthen the state’s responsibility in education.

Since March, five metropolitan and provincial offices of education (overseeing over 200 schools)--Gyeonggi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Incheon, Jeollanam-do, and Daejeon--have run pilot programs. Next year, the program is to be expanded to all metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide.

“At the Republic of Korea Expo for Local Era in Daejeon recently, the offices of education competed to promote the Neulbom School,” said A, adding, “In schools, they’re forcing the work on teachers because there is not enough manpower, and due to a lack of space, even regular educational activities are being disrupted, yet they continue to exaggerate and promote it. It’s unfortunate.”

Most of the teachers working in the Neulbom Pilot School in Daejeon suffered from a heavy workload. Eight out of the ten teachers answered, “I don’t want to be in charge of work related to this again.”

According to a survey of teachers handling Neulbom Pilot School tasks in Daejeon, which the Daejeon Teachers’ Union conducted on November 1-3, when asked, “If the Neulbom Pilot School is run in 2024, are you willing to oversee the tasks you did this year?” 78.6% of the respondents answered, “No.”

They chose “spending and settling the related budget (22.2%)” as the hardest work related to the Neulbom School. This was followed by a lack of guidelines on the task from the office of education (19.4%), calculating and refunding the students’ tuition (16.7%), hiring and managing afterschool teachers (11.1%), and assigning and managing employees in charge of the Saebom Class (11.1%).

According to the Daejeon Teachers’ Union, in 2024, a total of 70 Neulbom Pilot Schools will be open, fifty more than the twenty schools already open.

Lee Yoon-kyung, head of the Daejeon Teachers’ Union, said, “Accounting is not the duty of teachers, yet the teachers are overseeing all the accounting work, such as the tuition and teachers’ fees related to the Neulbom School.” She argued, “They are complaining of stress as they are forced to handle the accounting, too.”

The Elementary School Teachers’ Union is asking the government to provide a separate space to run the Neulbom School, provide more human resources, and reconsider the edu-care project (afterschool care service for first graders) from square one.

“All kinds of problems are occurring nationwide because of the operation of Neulbom Schools, such as the increased workload of teachers, a wasted budget, and the hasty promotion of the project,” said Jeong Su-gyeong, head of the Elementary School Teachers’ Union, adding, “The education ministry should provide an opportunity to listen to the opinions of the teachers in schools to better run the project, and provide measures to actually reduce the work.”