"Three Bears Promote Low Birth Rate": Unprecedented Complaints Pour In as Teachers' Contacts Blocked

In June, when the South Korean national football team's North and Central American World Cup matches were held, students at a middle school in Gyeonggi Province made a commotion while watching the match in their classroom, prompting a discipline teacher to say, "Spread out."

However, two days later, a related complaint was filed through e-People, the state-run online petition portal.

The reason for the complaint was that "the teacher shouted too loudly at the students."

A physical education teacher at the same school also received a complaint questioning why an outdoor PE class was held despite the presence of fine dust, and the school ultimately had to draft a written response and submit it to the provincial office of education.

An analysis showed that so-called school-related complaints through e-People have been increasing rapidly of late.

According to data from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, school-related e-People complaints filed with 16 municipal and provincial offices of education nationwide rose by 7.1%, from about 124,000 cases in 2024 to about 133,000 cases last year.

While overall e-People complaints decreased by 4.3% over the same period, complaints related to offices of education increased against this trend.

The upward trend has been even steeper this year.

In the first quarter alone, about 52,000 cases were filed, accounting for approximately 40% of last year's total complaints in just three months.

The content of the complaints is also diverse, ranging from "the English performance assessment is too difficult," "why won't you change my child's club," "why was my child assigned to the same group as a peer they do not get along with," to "what are the criteria for seat allocation on field trip buses."

In January, the Ministry of Education prepared a manual for handling complaints to protect teachers' rights, including banning the submission of complaints through teachers' personal contact numbers or social media.

However, the situation changes when complaints are filed through official channels such as e-People.

Under relevant laws, schools must verify the facts and submit a written response to the office of education within seven days.

Even if complaints raised directly to teachers decrease, the administrative burden on schools to process them remains when they are filed as official complaints.

An influx of absurd complaints is not limited to offices of education; last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government's online petition system even received a complaint claiming that the bear family sculptures at Seoul Botanic Park only having three members promotes low birth rates, demanding that two more bears be installed.

Experts pointed out that there is a need to supplement the system so that specific grounds must be provided when submitting online complaints, and complaints lacking sufficient grounds can be filtered out in advance.

Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video edited by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Design by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.