Students and their teacher pose to celebrate Teachers’ Day at a middle school in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Courtesy of Gyeongsangnamdo Office of Education
Nearly half of teachers in Korea are considering leaving the profession, underscoring growing concerns over excessive administrative workloads, malicious complaints from parents and fears of child abuse accusations stemming from routine classroom guidance.
The findings come from surveys released by Korea's two major teachers' unions — the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) and the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Unions (KFTU) — to mark Teachers' Day, which falls on May 15.
In a survey conducted by the KTU from May 7 to 12 involving 1,902 teachers nationwide, 97.5 percent of teachers said administrative workload negatively affects educational activities. Tasks identified as the most burdensome included accounting and budget-related paperwork, selected by 60.5 percent of respondents, followed by hiring-related administrative work at 41.5 percent and handling civil complaints at 39.8 percent.
A separate survey conducted by the KFTU between April 20 and May 11, which gathered responses from 7,180 teachers across the country, also found that 61.3 percent believed their current workload is disconnected from the core responsibilities of teaching. The growing burden was cited as a major source of frustration among educators, with 55.5 percent of respondents — or 3,987 teachers — saying they had considered resigning within the past year.
Students write messages of gratitude to their teachers on a classroom chalkboard at a local elementary school in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, a day ahead of Teachers' Day. Yonhap
Another major reason for considering resignation, according to the KFTU survey, was malicious complaints from parents, cited by 62.8 percent of respondents. The figure was more than 20 percentage points higher than dissatisfaction with salary and financial compensation, which stood at 42.1 percent. In addition, 80.8 percent of teachers surveyed said they felt anxious about being sued over child abuse allegations. The union noted that “even teachers who have never faced legal complaints are teaching under constant fear.”
The KTU survey also found that teachers experienced a severe weakening of their authority in the classroom. As many as 94.1 percent of respondents of the poll said they had hesitated to carry out or had scaled back student guidance or educational activities due to concerns about possible child abuse accusations.
There was also a strong perception among teachers that the basic conditions necessary for educational activities are no longer guaranteed. In the KTU survey, 85.3 percent of respondents answered in the negative when asked whether schools currently provide conditions that allow teachers to fully focus on educational activities.
In the KFTU survey, only 5.6 percent said teachers’ educational values and dedication are sufficiently respected by society. Notably, just 19.3 percent of respondents in the same survey said they would choose the teaching profession again. At the same time, 94.7 percent identified “students’ positive change and growth” as the most rewarding aspect of their career.
Source: Korea Times News
