The right to safe and healthy work’ is included in the teachers’ cry

Jae-gwang Kim

SEP 20 2023

中文    한국어    日本語

On July 18th, a teacher died at Seoi Elementary School. It is presumed that the cause is deterioration in mental health due to various unbearable situations, such as malicious complaints from parents. As a teacher for 13 years, many thoughts came to my mind. When I looked at the demands and measures to solve the problem, I had a thought that it could go wrong. Malicious complaints from parents and interference in educational activities by students have increased every year, and all teaching profession organizations have called for countermeasures and system improvements. However, it seems that the perspective on analyzing the cause of the problem is slightly different. So my mind is filled with concerns that things could go wrong. In this article, I try to unravel the complexities in my head with readers.

Before talking about teaching rights, it is necessary to establish clear standards for ‘educational labor’

A teacher is a person who provides education to students in a workplace called a school. For proper education, there must be social discussion and agreement on the definition of education, awareness of education targets, educational content and methods. The result of this discussion and agreement becomes the curriculum, and the main task of educational labor is to reorganize it to suit the region and school and teach students. Teachers also have tasks other than the curriculum that are given under the name of discipline, and should perform various administrative tasks for education.

The majority of jobs have job descriptions. It specifies how things should be done and what results should be achieved. However, you cannot find job descriptions for teachers who have to do countless tasks. Although there is an administrative work manual of the Office of Education, it is difficult to call it a job description. In particular, there are no clear standards for discipline. As a result, it is not clear to what extent one should or should not do something. It is the same when it comes to consultations and complaints regarding curriculum and discipline. I think this was the reason why the deceased teacher of Seoi Elementary School had difficulties.

I believe that it is necessary to execute job analysis of educational labor, and to understand and share the analyzed job content socially. In the absence of clear standards,  I think that insisting on restoring teaching authority, which is teachers' right to educate, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. If done incorrectly, the argument for restoring teaching authority can mislead to restore the authority of teachers and degenerate the school into one that views students as passive objects to teach. For a long time, schools have regarded students as dignified beings. Schools where students are objects rather than beings are likely to become places where violence is rampant. I'm afraid of that.

The tragedy of Seoi Elementary School serves as an opportunity to think about the ‘labor safety’ of education workers.

I believe that clear standards for educational labor can play the same role as workers' right to stop work. We will be able to talk to each other about the risk of schools as a workplace and further provide training so that we can work healthily and safely. Additionally, it will be a highly effective form of education for students and parents to prevent interference in educational activities. In this way, if the three educational entities (students, parents, and teachers) are fully aware of the standards of educational labor and when it is judged to be an unfair work order, malicious complaint, or interference in educational activities, the teacher will not hesitate to stop teaching. Because doing things you don't have to do is damaging your health.

However, according to the current Occupational Safety and Health Act, teachers' work is an exception because it is an educational service position. Therefore teachers are unable to receive safety and health education on topics such as commonly occurring diseases, injuries, and stress management. I hope that educational workers' 'right to stop educational activities' will be discussed in order to revise the Occupational Safety and Health Act or the special law for improving the status of teachers and protecting educational activities.

A teacher’s death of Seoi Elementary School served as an opportunity for not only teachers but also the public to rethink the space called school. This time, we must never pass over half-hearted measures. The right to safe and healthy work should also be included in teachers' cries. There is no reason for any worker to continue doing work that is detrimental to their health. The same goes for teachers. At this time when many discussions are taking place, I hope that it also can be discussed teachers' rights to stop educational activities and their rights to work healthily. Lastly, I would like to express my deepest condolences on the death of a teacher in  Seoi Elementary School.