hankyoreh

On Nov. 3

On November 3, 1929, students at Gwangju High School in South Jeolla Province staged a street demonstration that was the country’s biggest anti-Japanese campaign since the March 1 Independence Movement of 1919. The anniversary of that date was officially declared “Students’ Day” in 1953 under then-President Rhee Syng-man. It was later abolished by the Park Chung-hee administration in 1973, and it was not until 1984 that it returned as a national memorial day.

It was on Nov. 3 this year that the Park Geun-hye administration officially announced the introduction of a state issuance system for Korean history textbooks. While the pendulum of public opinion has clearly swung against the move regardless of political persuasion, the state textbooks are now sent to arrive before students in 2017 -- “for the children’s sake,” supporters argue. The announcement ushered in phase two in the state textbook wars with academics, educators, civil society, and the political opposition, which called it a “coup d’etat in the history classroom.”

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea held a press conference at the Central Government Complex in Seoul on Nov. 3 to officially announce a “state, authorized, and accredited” classification system for middle and high school textbooks that included state-issued books for middle school history and high school Korean history classes.

“It was the administration’s determination that making proper history textbooks was realistically impossible under the current authorized publication system,” explained Hwang Woo-yea.

“The decision was made for the state to take responsibility for publishing proper history textbooks to prevent social disorder stemming from history textbooks, normalize history education, and achieve national unity,” he added.

Hwang Kyo-ahn said it was “no longer possible to teach our precious children with distorted and biased history textbooks.”

“We must create proper history textbooks that are founded in objective fact and consistent with Constitutional values,” he added.

The Prime Minister also gave a Power Point presentation that included some radical claims.

“There are around 2,300 high schools nationwide, and only three of them chose the Kyohak textbook,” he noted. The Kyohak book at the time created controversy with its very right-wing take on Korean history. “All the others -- 99.9% of high schools -- opted for textbooks that have been accused of bias.”

The Ministry of Education also announced on Nov. 3 that it was adopting an authorization system for middle and high school math, science, and English textbooks that had previously been issued under an accreditation system. New high school courses in integrated social sciences, science, and science laboratory experimentation created for the 2015 educational curriculum were also classified as requiring authorized textbooks.

Around the same time that the administration made its announcement, Seoul National University emeritus professor of Korean history Lee Tae-jin openly rebutted its claims of textbook bias, accusing the administration and ruling Saenuri Party of “giving the public false information.”

“The eight textbooks currently in use are all moderate or right-wing in content,” said Lee, who oversaw the authorization process for the current textbooks as head of the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) under the Lee Myung-bak and Park administrations.

Meanwhile, the outpouring of statements of press conferences from all walks of life continued. Good Teacher, an association of Christian instructors, said the state history textbook issuance issue “is already becoming a historical incident in itself.”

“We intend to teach not only the history of the past but also the history that is unfolding today, and to have free debates with students to identify the historical significance of the present day,” the group said.

In front of the administration‘s press conference site at the Central Government Complex in Seoul, emergency statements were read by a group of 656 retired teachers and members of the Network to Prevent State Korean History Textbook Issuance. Representatives of civil society, including youth groups, began lighting candles at Gwanghwamun Square later that day.

Television personality Kim Je-dong also appeared holding a sign reading, “Do you plan to designate official ‘state minds’ too?” -- a message that ended up being repeated over social media throughout the day.

By Jeon Jung-yoon and Kim Mi-hyang, staff reporters

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