2023-09-17 10:48:23
Exemption from child abuse during legitimate educational activities
“Together with the revision of Article 17, Paragraph 5 of the Child Welfare Act”
Confusion expected between abuse and guidance
▲ Four laws to protect teaching rights – page 9 Amid strong calls from the education community to resolve serious violations of teaching rights, the so-called ‘four laws to protect teaching rights’ are expected to be submitted to the plenary session through the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly this week. There are expectations that teachers will be protected from indiscriminate reports of child abuse. However, revisions to the Child Welfare Act remain, and confusion is expected to continue for the time being over how to distinguish between emotional abuse and legitimate student life guidance.
According to the education community on the 17th, the four laws protecting teaching rights that the National Assembly Education Committee approved at the plenary session on the 15th passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee this week and are expected to be passed in the plenary session on the 21st.
The four laws protecting teachers’ rights refer to the Teachers’ Status Act (Special Act), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Basic Education Act, and the Early Childhood Education Act amendments to improve the status of teachers and protect their educational activities. The Teacher Status Act prohibits teachers from being dismissed from their positions even if they are reported for child abuse unless there is a justifiable reason, and requires the Superintendent of Education to submit an opinion. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Early Childhood Education Act contain provisions that do not consider teachers’ legitimate guidance in life as child abuse.
As the passage of the 4th Act to Protect Teachers’ Rights became visible, the educational community welcomed it, but also called for the Child Welfare Act to be revised so as not to conflict with it. At the 9th Saturday rally held in front of the National Assembly on the 16th, an estimated 30,000 teachers (police estimate 20,000) teachers argued that “in order to restore teaching rights, the current Child Welfare Act must be revised.”
This is because if Article 17, No. 5 of the Child Welfare Act, which prohibits emotional abuse of children, remains in place, teachers can still be reported for child abuse, and violations of teaching rights are bound to be repeated. In fact, in all cases in which suspicions were raised of abuse of power by Daejeon elementary school teacher A, who died on the 7th, and a Ministry of Education official, the teacher was reported for emotional child abuse, but was cleared of charges.
The National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee will hold the first bill review subcommittee on the 20th to discuss amendments to the related Child Welfare Act. The amendment proposed by People Power Party lawmaker Kang Ki-yoon on the 7th included a proviso that “cases resulting from a teacher’s conduct in guiding students’ lives are excluded from acts of emotional abuse.” The bill proposed on the 12th by Ko Young-in, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, contains the purpose that ‘legitimate student life guidance is not considered emotional or physical child abuse.’
There are also opinions that we should be cautious in revising the Child Welfare Act. Jeong Jae-hoon, a professor of social welfare at Seoul Women’s University, said, “Teachers should not be excluded from emotional abuse.” Lee Bong-ju, a professor of social welfare at Seoul National University, said, “The significance of the Child Welfare Act is that the state will take responsibility for frequent emotional abuse,” and suggested, “We need to focus on ways to catch parents’ reports of retaliatory abuse at an early stage.”
It is expected that confusion will be reduced by providing guidance on the specific scope of legitimate student guidance activities. The ‘Student Life Guidance Notice’ has been applied since this month, but the detailed school rules may be different, so some say that specific examples should be included in the notice commentary that comes out this month.
Reporter Kim Ye-seul
1694950509
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