A supervisor from a fictional national agency called the "Teacher Rights Protection Bureau" handles "iljin," students who habitually commit school violence and delinquency, and parents who file malicious complaints, on behalf of teachers. The supervisor is a former special forces member and sometimes uses violence in the process of resolving incidents, giving viewers "catharsis." This is the story of the Netflix drama "True Education." True Education has been hugely popular, ranking No. 1 globally on Netflix for three consecutive weeks.
A dedicated body for protecting teacher rights that appears in the drama is expected to make a real-world debut soon. At the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the 25th, transition team members for Gyeonggi education superintendent-elect Ahn Min-seok and Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Jun-hyeok held a forum titled "Why and how to create the Gyeonggi Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities." Superintendent-elect Ahn and the Democratic Research Institute, the Democratic Party of Korea's think tank, have discussed "establishing a Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities" over the past two weeks.
Ahn is expected to move quickly to establish the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities. Ahn said, "With this forum, we will wrap up the public discussion on the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities, draw a concrete blueprint for how to design it well, and make a decision," adding, "The Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities is about safeguarding students' learning, restoring order in schools, and rebuilding trust in public education."
After Ahn outlined his vision for the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities immediately after winning election, the debate intensified. At the forum, a student rights group also staged a protest holding placards reading "Oppose creating a drama-style teacher rights bureau like True Education." They argued that implementing a fictional institution from a drama is unrealistic and that excessive protection of teacher rights would infringe on student rights.
How would the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities actually operate? According to what Ahn disclosed that day, the bureau would not physically punish problem students or teachers like in the drama. Housed within the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities would handle complaints against teachers on their behalf and provide legal support for investigations and lawsuits related to educational activities. It also plans to push legislation so that teachers are not held responsible for safety accidents that occur during educational activities if there is no intent or gross negligence.
Lee Kyung-ah, a research fellow at the Democratic Research Institute, presented a plan to establish the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities at the forum and cited as institutional overhaul tasks: ▲ establishing a legal basis for the bureau by revising the Act on the Status of Teachers ▲ making the educational activity protection support centers in city and provincial education offices statutory bodies ▲ stipulating the school principals' duty to take initial protective measures against interference with educational activities ▲ specifying in law the principle of agency responsibility for malicious complaints.
Ahn said, "We will establish the Bureau for Protecting Educational Activities under the direct control of the superintendent and, to protect teachers' legitimate educational activities, pursue revisions to the Child Welfare Act and the Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse with the National Assembly," adding, "We will secure separate guidance spaces and dedicated personnel to respond to class disruptions and interference with educational activities, and shift to a system in which the education office is responsible for handling complaints."
He added, "I feel sorry for the part where my determination to protect teachers was overly expressed and thus overinterpreted, and my conviction is that children should not be hit, not even with a flower."