hankyoreh

the superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education

Seoul schools superintendent Kong Jeong-taek is making no secret of his desire to have schools “reselect” their “modern and contemporary” Korean history textbooks, saying at a recent “history textbook training session” attended by high school principals and school board members on November 10 that he “again calls on you to choose the correct textbook, since it is hard to instill a balanced view of the state in students using biased textbooks.”

History teachers and even some principals who were at the event noted that textbook selection is supposed to be a decision schools make independent of outside influence and that the superintendent is overstepping his authority by getting involved. Some expressed concern that any reselection process would could lead to conflict at individual schools.

In his opening remarks at the “training session” organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Kong said there are “some among the six (currently approved versions of) modern and contemporary Korean history textbooks that are inconsistent with the direction of history education” and that “one has been the subject of social controversy since 2004 and has close to 400 areas to be revised, and still it is being called biased,” apparently a reference to the edition published by Kumsung Publishing Co.

“If this is left unfixed, the worry is that it could lead to a biased view of the state and understanding of history being instilled in the future generation,” said Kong.

Kim Seong-gi of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education’s Educational Curriculum Policy Section told principals to choose the “correct” textbook “whenever the opinion of the school board (about the textbooks) differs” from their own, and report back to the SMOE. “Principals can make their own decisions, even if a school board’s decision is different” from their own.

According to the “Regulation on Textbooks for Instructional Use,” a principal is supposed to respect the textbook reviews given by school boards, but may make decisions that vary from that. However, it is also then required that the principal report his or her decision to the school board and the local education office. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is trying to abuse that stipulation by telling principals to force their way when school boards make the “wrong” choice of textbooks.

Close to 1,000 principals and school board members attended the event.

One public high school principal worried that teachers might not go along with changes to his school’s choice of history textbook. “We’re already done making our choice,” he said. “It’s frustrating, because it’s not like we can disregard the superintendent, either.”

“This is like making principals deal with the problem when the situation suddenly gets complicated. The government approved this textbook and it’s been used since then,” said another principal. “I’m really worried. Now that the education office has held a ‘training session,’ it’s obvious it’s going to want reports about the reselection situation.”

In an official statement, the Association for Korean History Teachers, said the “Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology are supposed to uphold the law, which says textbook selection is under the authority of the schools, and they are violating the Regulation on Textbooks for Instructional Use, which says textbooks are supposed to be ordered from publishers six months before the semester in which they are being used begins.”

The statement goes on to say it is “defamation of character to portray all history teachers who chose the Kumsung Publishing edition of the textbook as left-leaning by telling those who attended the ‘training session’ to change the textbook.”

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