Teachers decry decision against regular status
Park Hye-seong experienced discrimination as a contract teacher when she taught Korean language at a middle school in Seoul.
“Contract teachers are not paid during vacation months, while regular teachers are. Teachers spend vacation months receiving training and therefore contract teachers should rightfully be paid,” she said.
Park also mentioned the differences in pay raises according to teaching experience, as well as limits to taking part in quality training programs.
“We have been calling for contract teachers to be given regular status, and the government had promised to provide irregular workers in the public sector regular status. We cannot accept the government’s decision made contrary to its pledge.”
The education ministry on Monday stated it would not allow over 30,000 contract teachers and instructors regular teacher status in its announcement of measures on improving working conditions for irregular workers in education.
This is part of the Moon Jae-in administration’s key drive to provide irregular workers regular status.
It has pledged to start with the public sector which has 310,000 irregular workers. Those in education — 14,000 — account for around half of them.
“Only two percent have been granted regular status according to the education ministry-affiliated committee’s decision,” education workers affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said following the ministry’s announcement.
“We cannot but question whether the government has even the slightest willingness to realize its promise to eradicate irregular workers.”
Gov’t plan
The ministry-affiliated committee in charge of the task decided against providing 32,734 contract teachers regular status, citing the issue of fairness.
“We have determined that it would be difficult to provide regular status to part-time teachers, considering that it would ignite controversy over fairness among regular teachers, who hold coveted jobs among young people,” the committee said.
Under the status-quo, one needs to pass the teachers’ certification exam to be recruited as a regular teacher. Contract teachers are not required to take the test.
There has been fierce opposition from students at teachers colleges preparing to take the certification exams as well as teachers’ groups against providing contract teachers regular status for this reason.
“We strongly denounce the actions of part-time teachers who ignore the principles of transparent recruitment,” the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations (KFTA) said earlier.
The teachers group collected over 110,000 signatures against the conversion of contract teachers.
The committee also decided against providing 8,343 instructors of seven categories regular status, including English conversation and physical education instructors, citing legal grounds that ban this.
It pledged to improve wages of contract teachers by providing the same levels of bonuses and welfare allowances as regular teachers as well as to correct unfair unemployment practices. It also promised to improve working conditions for the seven categories of instructors.
Meanwhile, the committee pledged to provide job security to 1,034 instructors at kindergartens who are in charge of after-class care and extra-curricular programs.
It proposed the same for 12,000 irregular administrative workers at national and public schools who work less than 15 hours and those aged 55 to 60.
It decided to provide regular status to 45 irregular workers at the education ministry and affiliated institutions as well as 44 workers at five state-run special needs schools.
Nationwide education offices will finalize the plan to convert irregular workers by the end of this month.
Controversy
The government’s decision came amid demands from students of teachers colleges for job security, after nationwide education offices unveiled last month that they would be cutting down recruiting for elementary and middle schools for next year.
The students raised suspicions that the reduction was to grant contract teachers regular status, which the government denied, but generated even fiercer opposition against the conversion of contract teachers.
In the government’s announcement, it also stated that private schools should lower the percentage of contract teachers and replace them with regular teachers, which contract teachers say will lead to the school’s firing of many of them.
The KCTU-affiliated education workers took issue with the composition of the ministry’s committee.
The committee is comprised of four officials from the education ministry and education offices, one member of the teachers’ group, one school parent, two external specialists, and two experts recommended each by the KCTU and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
The KCTU said the composition made it impossible to provide part-time teachers and instructors regular status.
“The committee, of which more than half represent employers, cannot reach a proper decision on the matter,” the KCTU members said.
“The issue of conversion must be made through direct negotiations with irregular education workers,” it said.