hankyoreh

a family member of a student who perished in the Sewol ferry sinking weeps while pinning a carnation to the chest of a family member of a teacher who died

By Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

Over 15,000 schoolteachers marked Teacher’s Day on May 15 with a statement harshly criticizing President Park Geun-hye for the response to last month’s Sewol ferry sinking.

“We no longer need a President who has neither the will nor the ability to save people’s lives,” the statement declared.

Kim Jung-hoon, chairman of the Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU), announced the “teachers‘ statement urging a proper resolution to the Sewol tragedy” on May 15 at the union’s headquarters in Seoul’s Seodaemun district. It was signed by a total of 15,852 public school teachers, many of whom are not KTU members.

In the statement, the teachers criticized the response to the sinking by Park and the administration.

“What the government showed at the crucial moment early on after the accident, when it was possible to save at least one more precious life, was the epitome of confusion and incompetence,” the statement said. “But it was the pro forma apologies and ‘condolence photo ops’ of the President that truly broke the public’s hearts.”

It went on to demand that Park take full responsibility for the rescue failure.

“The President needs to make a heartfelt admission of her failure to fulfill her duty and take suitable responsibility at once,” the statement read.

“The public’s trust must be restored through an exhaustive investigation and painstaking determination of responsibility,” it continued. “If this cannot be done properly, then Park is not fit to be President.”

The teachers also voiced a message of self-reproach for “failing to work hard enough to change things when hundreds of students each year take their own lives due to excessive university entrance competition. Also, countless students feel despair and frustration over discrimination and stratification.” In the statement, they pledged to take a leading role in future education reforms.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education announced plans for disciplinary action against 43 teachers (one of them a dismissed former teacher) who posted messages under their own names on a Blue House bulletin board urging President Park to resign. It also ordered local offices of education to determine the identities of other teachers who posted messages by May 20.

On May 13, forty-three teachers posted a message announcing their plans to launch a “campaign to call for the resignation of the Park Geun-hye administration, which has shown nothing but incompetence, irresponsibility, shamelessness, deceptiveness, and arrogance.”

“We view this as a violation of numerous laws, including terms in the Constitution and the Framework Act on Education requiring political neutrality from teachers, and the State Public Officials Act, which bans collective action beyond official duties and requires good faith and the upholding of dignity,” said Lee Yong-hak, head of the ministry’s division for teacher welfare and training.

“We’re also looking into possible problems with the 15,000-teacher statement,” Lee added.

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