Disappointing teachers

Moon’s vow for irregular workers hits the bricks

The education ministry decided Monday not to grant regular employee status to teachers with contract-based or part-time positions.

The decision affected over 40,000 education workers. They include 32,734 irregular teachers, and 8,343 instructors, who are working in national and public schools.

The announcement was a huge blow to the teachers who had hoped to attain regular status during President Moon Jae-in’s term, given his special focus on eradicating the social and income disparity faced by numerous irregular workers.

The government was wrong to rush the conversion to regular teacher status without making meticulous preparations. The President got their hopes up when he announced an “era of zero irregular workers” in the public sector during his May 12 visit to Incheon International Airport.

The irregular teachers are right to be frustrated, but it is time to check whether the status conversion is reasonable and plausible. They have claimed that they should be given regular status because they shoulder the same teaching and administrative load as regular teachers.

Under the relevant law, only those who have passed the highly competitive state exam for teacher certification are entitled to permanent job status and pensions, making it one of the most popular professions among young Koreans.

Therefore, the ministry’s decision is inevitable when considering the vital importance of maintaining fairness in the recruitment of teachers. As Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said Wednesday that turning irregular teachers into regular ones would amount to breaking the law.

The case of irregular teachers should serve as a reminder to the Moon administration that an advanced, thorough and cool-headed assessment is crucial to the success of any policy.

Otherwise, it ends up giving false hope to the people concerned, sets back the government’s credibility if it fails, and becomes a populist white elephant if pushed for implementation. Warranting special attention are policies directly linked to people’s livelihoods and the government must be extra prudent in announcing and implementing them. After the irregular teachers failed to get regular status, more people are starting to doubt the viability of the President’s pledge to reduce irregular workers.

Incheon International Airport Corp., which has the largest percentage of irregular workers among public corporations, has also struggled with the shift to regular status due to conflicts with subcontractors, among other issues.

President Moon should instruct ministries to review and, if necessary, readjust the policy of reducing irregular workers to reflect the different circumstances in various sectors.