‘Six in 10 teenage stars don’t go to school regularly’
Seoul: Six out of 10 teenage entertainers do not attend school regularly, a survey showed sparking worries over the K-pop industry’s violation of the school-age children’s right to learn.
According to a 2016 report yesterday on pop culture industry submitted by Korea Creative Content Agency to Representative Kim Byungwook of the Democratic Party, only 35.3% of the entertainers aged under 19 went to school every day despite their work schedule.
Some 47% of them went to school two to three times a
week and 5.9% only go to
school once or twice a month when they were working.
Nearly 12% said they barely went to school, the report showed.
The local law stipulates that the teenage entertainers right to learn must be included when agencies sign contracts with them.
But only 20% of the agencies added the teenage entertainers duty to attend school to the terms and conditions of the contract.
Nearly 53% of their agencies did not even check whether the teenager went to schools.
The teenagers were required to work late at night without any prior request, the report showed yesterday.
Some 15% of the agencies said they were not seeking an agreement from the teenagers when they asked them to work at night.
For trainees, the working conditions were poorer. Some 23.5% of them did not sign a written contract with agencies.
It took an average of one year and nine months for would-be actors and actresses to debut and two years and seven months for aspiring singers.
Most of the agencies kicked out the trainees when they cannot pass a monthly test.
Kim said there has been an explosive increase in the number of teenage entertainers, but protecting their rights such as the right to learn is insufficient.
The government should lay out standardised guidelines, Kim added. — The Korea Herald/Asia News Network