“What did the Ministry of Education do when there is a lot of swearing and violence”
A public hearing to collect opinions on the new curriculum was narrowly concluded amid clashes between conservative and progressive groups.
However, as violence and abusive language go back and forth in some public hearings such as general discussion and health subjects, voices pointing out the Ministry of Education’s lukewarm response are increasing.
The National Teachers and Staff Labor Union issued a statement on the 10th and said, “We strongly condemn the Ministry of Education for neglecting the public hearing on the curriculum until the very end.”
“Even when the previous public hearings in the Department of Morals, Social Studies, Technology and Family Studies, and Health Department suffered lameness, the Ministry of Education, which should be responsible for normalizing operations, did not play any role,” the KTU said. He added.
Earlier, the Ministry of Education prepared a draft of the new curriculum (2022 revised curriculum) and held public hearings on each subject from the 28th of last month.
On the last day, the 8th of this month, a general public hearing was held.
However, in some subject public hearings, conservative and progressive groups demanded the addition or deletion of some content, swearing or shouting, which disrupted the progress of the public hearing.
In the case of the public hearing on the history subject on the 30th of last month, some participants clamored for ‘freedom’ in the description of democracy and demanded that expressions such as ‘establishment and founding of the Republic of Korea’ be added.
At the public health subject public hearing, participants demanded that expressions such as ‘gender equality’ be modified or deleted to ‘gender equality’, and some participants got entangled with other participants in the process of trying to climb onto the podium without permission.
At the general discussion public hearing on the 8th, Choi Seo-hyun, chairman of the National Specialized High School Labor Union, who participated in the general discussion, remarked, ‘I condemn the Yun Seok-yeol government for deleting labor education from the general draft.’ A man jumped into the podium and called the police was stopped
As such, as conservative and progressive groups quarrel over the content of the curriculum, it seems that the noise will continue even following the public hearing.
In a situation where it is difficult to find a compromise in the education world, some point out that the Ministry of Education held a public hearing without any clear measures once morest physical conflict, and in fact, there was no proper collection of opinions.
In the future, the Ministry of Education will adjust the issues through the consultative body and confirm and announce the new curriculum in December of this year following administrative notice and deliberation and resolution by the National Education Commission.
/yunhap news
