hankyoreh

Regarding the spiritual education currently obligatory at Korea’s religious schools, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has pulled back on its position that it would allow students to choose their own religion.

According to several members of the educational council on February 16, during the second council meeting of the year on February 9, the ministry distributed a revised amendment that excluded two out of three items designed to regulate religious education, as suggested at the first council in January.

Under the initial proposal, primary and secondary schools would have to provide more than one alternative subject to religion class, in order to guarantee the students’ religious freedom. Also, religious activities would have to be performed with students’ voluntary participation. Finally, in organizing extracurricular activities, religious education based on faiths other than the official school religion would have to be provided if there is a students demand for such afterschool programs.

The revised amendment contains only the first of these three proposals.

By Korean law, students must attend the school in the district in which they reside, whether the school is public or private - the cost difference is negligable in Korea, with very few exceptions, as both types of schools receive government funding. Thus, there has long been controversy over certain faith-based private schools requiring students to attend religions events.

Several teachers’ organizations, civic groups, and religious organizations pointed out that under the trimmed-down amendment, students may be forced to take part in religious ceremonies against their beliefs. Sohn Sang-hun, an official of the Korea Institute Religious Freedom, said that "students’ choice should be guaranteed. To force the students to participate in religious events could be a violation of the Constitution." Jin Yeong-hyo of the Korean Teachers & Education Workers’ Union urged the ministry to explain why it had cut the original proposals.

In response, Park Je-yun, an official of the ministry, said that religious schools were opposed to regulations in connection with religious education. A high-ranking official of the Korea Federation of Christian Schools said on condition of anonymity, "It is natural to guarantee the schools’ right to religious education and religious activities according to their founding ideology."

Meanwhile, a related case regarding mandatory chapel attendence at religious universities is slated to be ruled upon at South Korea’s Constitutional Court.

Two Soongsil University students - Lee Seung-uk and Kim Wang-jung - submitted a petition to the court on February 16, saying that the ministry had violated the Constitution for doing nothing to combat university regulations forcing students to attend chapel for at least six semesters in order to graduate.

It is said that the students have a right to choose a college or university, but in reality, the range of choice is not wide enough to grant students the ability to consider a school’s religious orientation in their choice, the two plaintiffs in the case said. The fact that they have to participate in religious ceremonies just because they are attending a private school is restriction of freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Constitution, the students said.

The two students submitted a petition to the Constitution Court after the ministry rejected their appeal in November last year.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]