President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday announced plans to raise the amount of extra pay given to homeroom teachers and teachers with managerial duties by at least 50 percent and 100 percent, respectively, a move designed to boost the morale of teachers following the recent suicide deaths of several of their colleagues.
Yoon shared the plan while meeting with a group of 20 teachers at the presidential office to discuss ways to protect their rights in the classroom.
“In order to boost the morale of teachers who are raising our future generations, I will raise extra pay for homeroom teachers by at least 50 percent and for assigned teachers by at least double,” he said, prompting cheers and applause from the teachers in attendance, who represented all grades, from kindergarten through high school.
Assigned teachers are given extra responsibilities related to school management and budget execution.
The meeting came as teachers across the nation have demanded better treatment and guarantees of their authority in
classrooms in the wake of a series of suicides by teachers who apparently suffered from unruly students and malicious complaints from parents.
Last month, the National Assembly passed a set of revisions aimed at improving the rights of teachers in classrooms. The four revisions, known as the “teacher rights restoration bills,” seek to strengthen the criteria for holding teachers accountable for child abuse, and provide grounds for schools and education offices to protect them from disgruntled parents and unruly behavior from students.
During the meeting, Yoon lamented that the tragedies may have been prevented had the government and the National Assembly worked more closely and swiftly to make the legal and institutional changes needed to improve the teaching environment.
He also stated his belief that establishing teachers’ authority is essential for safeguarding the human rights of students.
Yoon has repeatedly raised the issue of enhancing teachers’ rights since an elementary school teacher in Seoul wa
s found dead by suicide in her classroom in July.
During a Cabinet meeting on Sept. 12, he called for the swift passage of the teacher rights restoration bills and instructed the education and justice ministries to quickly draw up guidelines to ensure teachers are not punished for exercising their rightful authority.
At a later Cabinet meeting that promulgated the bills, he ordered the education ministry and other related ministries to quickly take follow-up steps while working harder to normalize the education field.
Source: Yonhap News Agency