School bullying investigator scheme 'vague': teachers' group

(Getty Images)

A leading teachers' organization said Thursday that the government's plan to hire "dedicated investigators" to handle school bullying cases would be ineffective due to an inadequate payment system and unclear legal authority.

“Looking at job postings for those dedicated investigators, their allowance is 300,000 ($224) to 400,000 won per case of school violence, and the amount of monthly salary they are expected to earn is only around 1 million won per month. The recruitment will be so difficult,” the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, the largest teachers' organization in Korea, said.

“In order to implement this plan effectively, financial support from the government is needed,” the KFTA added.

Under the plan first announced in December by the police and the education and interior ministries, the government will have investigators to look into school violence cases, instead of teachers, beginning in March when the new semester starts.

The government plans to hire 2,700 retired police and teachers to take the new role at schools. Split into teams of 15 investigators each, they will be assigned to 177 regional education offices nationwide.

There are concerns since their role, authority, and coordination system with teachers who are dealing with school violence currently, are not very clear.

"Currently, there are no guidelines regarding the operation of the dedicated investigators. Also, the cooperation system with incumbent teachers has to be made, too," a police officer said.

The measure came amid a sharp increase in school violence cases since 2017, when 31,000 cases were reported. A total of 62,000 school bullying cases were reported in 2022 -- doubling from the figure five years ago, according to data provided by the Education Ministry.

The plan was devised to protect educators from ongoing conflicts with demanding parents. Currently, school teachers are tasked with investigating school violence cases, leaving them exposed to direct complaints from parents and making it hard for teachers to focus on education.

In July 2023, an elementary school teacher was found dead in her classroom in Seoul’s Seocho District in an apparent suicide. After the incident, claims that the deceased took her life due to conflicts with demanding parents led to a public outpouring of grief.

In other advanced countries, including the US, UK, Australia and Japan, school bullying cases are handled first by the school internally, and then passed on to the police if the cases are serious.

By Lee Jaeeun(jenn@heraldcorp.com)