Ministry flaunted its own procedure by failing to have the textbooks reviewed by a separate committee

By Song Gyung-hwa, Writer

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technlogy's order to Kumsung Publishing to amend its high school textbook "Hanguk Geun-Hyeondaesa" ("Korean Modern and Contemporary History") has been judged void due to a procedural flaw. If confirmed, this judgment on the illegality of orders to amend the textbook that were issued in the name of "correcting left-leaning textbooks," will mean that the ministry has to assess once again whether the textbook is to be amended again, this time according to procedure. Immediately following the ruling, however, the ministry announced that it would file an appeal, which means that distribution of the current amended textbooks will continue for the time being.

The Seoul Administrative Court on Aug. 2 ruled in favor of Korea National University of Education Professor Kim Han-jong, 52, and the textbook's two other authors after the three writers sued the ministry to have the amendment order canceled.

The court's ruling cancels the amendment order made by the MEST to Kumsung Publishing on Nov. 26, 2008.

In the ruling, the court stated that an assessment of the textbooks was supposed to have taken place through deliberation by a specific textbook review committee within the ministry, but the MEST did not follow this procedure. The court said that Professor Kim and the other plaintiffs' assertion that the amendment order contained procedural flaws was reasonable, as it was issued before the committee had carried out its assessment of the textbooks.

The court added that if the ministry arbitrarily changed textbook content that had been reviewed by the committee without a separate evaluation by the committee, there was a risk that this could undermine the spirit of regulations governing assessment procedures. The regulations were created to guarantee the autonomy, professionalism and political neutrality of education by controlling the procedures employed by the textbook review committee in the course of its deliberations, the court said.

In December 2008, in accordance with the MEST's amendment order, Kumsung Publishing revised the textbook to accommodate demands made by New Right groups and the Ministry of Defense. For example, the sentence: "North Korea, just like South Korea, embarked on the process of establishing a single government," was deleted.

At this, the book's authors took legal action to request a cancellation of MEST’s order to revise the book.

The textbook’s authors sued Kumsung Publishing for following the amendment order, in order to “stop infringement of moral rights.”

On Sept. 1, 2009, a court ordered Kumsung to cease publishing, selling and distributing the amended textbook and to pay compensation to the authors, but a court of appeals overturned the verdict on Aug. 25 of this year.

Speaking after the most recent ruling, Professor Kim said he welcomed the court's decision, saying that the court had acknowledged the unreasonableness of the MEST’s amendment order, which was based on politics.

The ministry, however, said that it would appeal immediately.

Professor Kim and his allies are currently looking at possible legal measures to take if the amended textbook continues to be published next year, such as applying to have the MEST’s existing order legally declared invalid.

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