hankyoreh

South Korean students do not receive proper education about workers’ rights, according to a government-sponsored commission.

The tripartite commission consisting of government officials, labor unions, and company management officials said on January 16 that it submitted a set of recommendations to the Ministry of Education on how to enhance labor education at schools. The move, it said, is in tandem with ongoing efforts to revise and update school textbooks across the nation to reflect changing demographics and social concerns.

In its recommendations, the commission reportedly pointed out the lack of education covering the issue of basic labor rights at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. This leaves many students unprepared for tough working conditions after graduation, it said.

Currently, social studies textbooks at the middle school level contain only five sentences regarding basic labor rights, and those for the first year of high schools do not cover labor concerns at all.

"In many textbooks, labor-related sections are not categorized as independent topics," the commission said. "They should at least be delved into in more detail in a chapter or a small, independent section."

The commission said that the problem with current textbooks is that they focus more on the economic aspect of labor, not on its social significance. As a result, students come away from class interested only in whether a certain job is lucrative or not.

Though "labor" and "work" are the same in basic meaning, students tend to see them as two different categories - blue and white collar - discriminating against or feeling averse to labor and laborers.

"Education is needed to help students understand what postive impact self-realization through labor could have on society," the commission said.

Professor Song Tae-soo at the Korea Labor Education Institute, said, "South Korea has an imbalance in labor education compared with that in other advanced countries such as Britain, the U.S., France, and Japan."

Education Ministry officials said that they will determine whether to reflect the commission’s recommendations in new textbooks after an internal review.

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