In June, when the South Korean national football team's North and Central America World Cup matches took place, students at a middle school in Gyeonggi Province caused a commotion by watching the game in the classroom, prompting a student guidance teacher to tell them to "disperse."

However, a complaint regarding the incident was filed through the e-People portal two days later.

The reason cited in 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 fine dust warnings, and the school ultimately had to draft a response and submit it to the provincial office of education.

An analysis showed that so-called school-related complaints through the e-People portal 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 provincial and metropolitan 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, education office-related complaints increased against the trend.

The upward trend has become 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 contents of the complaints are also diverse, including grievances such as "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 friend they do not get along with," and "what are the criteria for seat arrangements on field trip buses."

In January, the Ministry of Education drew up guidelines for handling complaints to protect teachers' rights, which included banning the reception of complaints through teachers' personal contact numbers or social media.

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

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

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

Absurd complaints are flooding not just education offices; last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government's online civil complaint system received a grievance claiming that a bear family sculpture at the Seoul Botanic Park featuring only three bears encourages low birth rates, demanding that two more bears be installed.

Experts have pointed out the 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 by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News