South Korean teacher protection policy developments

Efforts to protect teachers from rights violations and malicious complaints have seen varying levels of implementation and success in South Korean educational offices.

In Daejeon, the Metropolitan Office of Education launched a dedicated ‘Educational Activity Protection Officer’ system. This initiative, overseen by Superintendent Oh Seok-jin, utilizes a 14-member team of lawyers, counselors, and supervisors to provide a ‘one-stop accompaniment support’ model. The goal is to shift the burden of handling malicious complaints from individual teachers to the institution through rapid response teams and legal assistance.

In contrast, a survey by the Sejong Teachers' Union indicated significant gaps in protection within the Sejong area. The survey found that 59% of educators had experienced infringements on educational activities in the last three years, with 70.6% of those affected stating that existing policies failed to provide practical protection. Reported issues included low awareness of support systems and a lack of official channels to redirect complaints away from teachers.