[Editorial] Edu Ministry Must Respond About Evaluation Reform

There is overwhelming opposition to the teacher evaluation program experiment at the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (Jeon Gyo Jo), but the organization's leadership has decided not to stage a fight against it. It is obvious that teachers are upset over the plan, and so the conservative media teasingly claims the reason the group's leadership has decided against mounting a campaign to oppose it is because it was forced to by public opinion. It is pathetic that they make the issue of long-term progress in education to be like gang fight.

We believe the decision by the union's leadership was made in order to demand that education officials work to adopt a more rational evaluation program. Indeed, president Lee Su Il has even said the organization would participate in the experiment if the education ministry just openly promises to improve the current evaluation system. It is time for the ministry to respond.

The ministry needs to understand what it means to have so many teachers opposed to the experiment. Teacher evaluation focuses on teachers. If they do not cooperate it will bring division to schools' teaching staff and not have the desired effect. It also needs to look at what teachers are saying from their perspective. During the course of negotiations the union demanded a new evaluation program, a move that would include reforming the current system. It never rejected evaluations altogether. The ministry knows well enough how the plan fell apart because of opposition from the Korea Federation of Teachers Associations.

The current system is a strong method for headmasters to wield control over teachers. The authoritarian and undemocratic climate in Korean schools originates in the control that it makes possible. Very often there have been teachers widely respected by students who were ranked last for opposing school policy. The program makes teachers feel defeated and it chills their passion for teaching. Last year the group "Good Teachers" did a survey of 514 teachers feeling harassed by the current system and yet 73 percent said they would support evaluations that take the particularities of the teaching profession into consideration to the greatest extent possible. The current method needs to be reformed, to improve the strength of Korean education.

The Hankyoreh, 12 November 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]