▲ Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Ahn Min-suk signs off on his second policy initiative
The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education announced today (July 13) that it is launching a Teachers' Rights Protection Task Force and establishing a new system of dedicated officers to protect teachers from malicious complaints.
Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Ahn Min-suk signed the operational plan for the Teachers' Rights Protection Task Force at 10:30 a.m. today, marking it as his second policy approval since taking office.
The task force is a direct response body under the Superintendent, who will serve as its head, to oversee serious cases of infringement on teachers' rights and policies for protecting educational activities.
Previously, concerns had been raised that teachers were forced to navigate complex procedures on their own because responsibilities for responding to rights infringements, indiscriminate child abuse reports, and malicious complaints were scattered across various departments.
The provincial education office plans to centralize investigation, legal support, counseling, healing, and educational activity protection tasks under the new task force. The goal is to establish a system where the education office takes full responsibility from the moment an incident occurs until its resolution and the teacher's recovery.
In particular, the office will operate a Teachers' Rights Protection Officer system—a first in the nation—where dedicated officers will be assigned to affected teachers on a one-on-one basis. They will provide support ranging from initial counseling and on-site response to fact-finding, legal advice, psychological and healing support, and follow-up management.
The provincial education office plans to recruit 50 such officers through an open call, targeting citizens with interest and expertise in protecting teachers' rights, former and current educators, and experts in fields such as law, counseling, mental health, and conflict mediation.
While operating the task force, the education office also intends to pursue the establishment of a tentatively named Bureau for the Protection of Educational Activities, which would report directly to the Superintendent.
Superintendent Ahn wore a black suit and black tie for the signing, marking the third anniversary of the death of a teacher at Seoi Elementary School.
"There are many teachers suffering from malicious complaints at this very moment. I hope that from this day forward, no more teachers will take their own lives," Ahn said. "We will conduct a full-scale investigation into malicious complaints and resolve as many of them as possible during the school break."
He added, "For teachers suffering from trauma, we will take special measures to facilitate personnel transfers effective September 1. We will also implement special measures to protect students in crisis," and promised, "I will correct these issues within one year."
Meanwhile, the provincial education office is observing a memorial period for the Seoi Elementary School teacher and a week for the recovery of educational activities from July 13 to 19.
During this period, memorial spaces for deceased teachers will be operated on the first floor of the Nambu Office in Suwon and the Bukbu Office in Uijeongbu.
The education office has decided to refrain from holding festive events or distributing press releases focused on institutional promotion during this memorial period.
(Photo: Provided by Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, Yonhap News)
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