His Colleague Died Of Suicide Due To Poor Treatment Of Parents And Students, 50 Thousand Teachers In South Korea Hold Protests

Teacher protests in Seoul, South Korea. (Screenshot of Arirang News' YouTube channel)

JAKARTA - About 50,000 teachers in South Korea staged a demonstration in Seoul Monday demanding better protection for their rights, highlighting what they call widespread abuse by arrogant parents, causing some of their co-workers to commit suicide.

Complaints from public school teachers regarding the ill treatment of parents and students, such as allegations of child abuse for disciplining students, increased sharply, after a young teacher was found dead of suicide in July.

"Legal measures are inadequate and government officials are passive in protecting teachers from problems," said a teacher participating in the demonstration and only willing to be named after him, Lee.

"Apart from the class, there are workloads that are too heavy and excessive complaints from students and parents," he said.

"It was a comprehensive problem, which I experienced for 15 years teaching," he continued.

Government data shows that over the past six months until last June, around 100 public school teachers committed suicide in South Jakarta. 57 of them teach at elementary schools.

Meanwhile, President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered officials to listen to the demands of teachers and seek to protect their rights, his office said.

In addition to the protests in Seoul, some 60,000 to 70,000 teachers held demonstrations elsewhere, according to organizers' estimates.

Separately, authorities warned that teacher collective actions to disrupt classes are illegal and threaten disciplinary action.

However, the South Korean teachers' union was not involved in Monday's demonstration, the protest-leading group, Everyone Together As One, said.

"We will protect them (the teachers) and make changes so that no one of the teachers chooses to commit suicide," the protest organizer said in a statement.

South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed countries, according to World Health Organization (WHO) and OECD data, with more than 20 people per 100,000 of the population committing suicide.

The Ministry of Education has promised to prevent incidents of teachers being punished for legitimate educational activities, and to improve communication between teachers and parents.

"The number of reports of child abuse that are indiscriminate has increased, because student rights are too emphasized, while teachers' rights are not respected," the ministry said in a statement.

"We will support the teachers so that they can focus on education, free from concerns about complaints of arbitrary child abuse," he said.

Most recently, the ministry formed a task force on Saturday to strengthen legal measures and take steps to ensure teachers' rights, such as not receiving phone calls from parents via their personal phones, but not providing a certain period of time.