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With the course aimed at educators planning to use a controversial history textbook, critics say gov’t is interfering in textbook selectionThe Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is generating controversy with its presentation of a course on “Correcting Textbooks with Leftist Tendencies,” aimed at principals and school council members of Seoul high schools, for the selection of a new textbook on Korean modern and contemporary history. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is encouraging this “textbook course” and has also agreed to provide speakers. In response, critics are charging that the MEST and SMOE are intervening in textbook selection, the authority of individual schools, and forcing the substitution of the textbook printed by Kumsung Publishing.

The SMOE announced Sunday that it was planning to hold a course in connection with the textbook, focusing on over 1,000 principals, school council leaders and parents of students from 240 high schools that have chosen the textbook “A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea.” The course is to be held at the SMOE and Seoul Education Training Institute on Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

An SMOE official said, “The course is being implemented based on the policy handed down by the MEST last month and the ‘Regulation on Textbooks for Instructional Use.’” The official said the SMOE plans to provide accurate information on the issue of the Korean modern and contemporary history textbook that has recently become a source of social controversy. MEST officials are among those speaking at the course, and the recommendation for revisions to “A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea” published by the MEST on October 30 is to be used as material for the course. The MEST said, “We look forward to the realization of a proper education for students through the selection a balanced textbook by the end of November following a re-selection procedure according to school.”

In response, Kimjeong Myeong-sin, co-president of Stand Together for Better Education, said, “It appears that the goal of the SMOE and MEST is to lead to the change of the textbook published by Kumsung, which was chosen by over half of the nation’s high schools, to something else.” Kimjeong criticized the action, saying, “For the government and the SMOE to apply pressure to change textbooks selected by schools through lawful procedures is an undemocratic action that damages the autonomy and political neutrality of education.”

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