The idea behind the National Assembly's amendment to the Private School Law was to provide members of school communities with the bare minimum of the authority they need to keep corrupt school administrations in check. Many of the private education foundations that own and operate private schools use those schools and students as tools for accumulating wealth, and the resulting campus disputes seriously hurt students' right to learn and teachers' right to teach, making a revision of the law inevitable.
That culture has long been a source of shame for the healthy private schools that have sought to make up for national shortcomings in educational capabilities and dedicated themselves to educating young people. Parochial schools gave Korea modern-style education, and you can guess how unpleasant it has been for them to have to be subjected to criticism because of corrupt private institutions. The schools led by Catholic clergy sworn to poverty and obedience must have felt betrayed, as was surely the case for traditional protestant schools that have played an important part in Korean social movements. Catholics' suggestion that they might disobey the new law probably comes from those feelings of anger.
Whether healthy private schools are many or few, it may have been wrong of the politicians and education officials to have not have thought enough about them. Now they are saying they will try to make their intentions better understood, but it remains to be seen whether that will be of comfort to them and whether they can be persuaded about the goals behind revising the legislation.
However, religious education foundations need to seriously ask themselves why it is the law had to be revised. The basic spirit of parochial schools is love, and particularly dedication to young children. Let us remember that on November 30 teacher representatives from 140 parochial schools of various religions called for religious people to stop opposing the changes to the law. There also needs to be critical thinking towards the motives of those who would like to further their dirty interests by taking advantage of the legitimate protests being made by healthy private schools.
The Hankyoreh, 16 December 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Don't Forget About Sound Parochial Schools |
