Following an incident in which a teacher killed a first-grade student at an elementary school in Daejeon, there are growing criticisms that the 'Faculty Health Review Committee' responsible for deciding on the leave or dismissal of teachers with health conditions is virtually ineffective.
According to materials received on the 18th from each provincial and city education office by the office of the People Power Party's Jeong Seong-guk, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, there were eight education offices among the 17 nationwide that never convened the Faculty Health Review Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Faculty Health Committee) over the four years from 2021 to 2024. This includes the education offices of Seoul, Daegu, Ulsan, Sejong, Chungnam, Gyeongbuk, Jeonnam, and Jeju. Notably, among these, the education offices of Seoul (established in 2021), Ulsan (established in 2006), Jeonnam (established in 2020), and Jeju (established in 2017) have not held a single session since their establishment.
Last year, there were only 12 instances of the Faculty Health Committee being held across the 17 education offices nationwide. The education offices of Chungbuk, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Jeonbuk held 6, 3, 2, and 1 instances, respectively. This figure includes not only meetings that actually reviewed the health conditions of teachers but also meetings that determined the operation, regulations, and structure. The remaining 13 education offices, excluding the four, did not hold any Faculty Health Committee meetings.
In the past four years, only two education offices, Incheon (1.25 times) and Gyeonggi (2.5 times), had an average of more than one Faculty Health Committee meeting per year. The overall average number of Faculty Health Committee meetings held by all 17 education offices was just 0.27 meetings per year, which means meetings were held approximately once every four years. In fact, the number of meetings that actually reviewed the health conditions of teachers can be considered even lower.
The reason the Faculty Health Committee has become ineffective is largely attributed to the lack of legally binding grounds. Currently, the Faculty Health Committee is being operated independently based on the rules of each provincial and city education office without unified legislation. The names also vary, such as the Gyeonggi and Busan Disease Leave Committee, and the Chungbuk Educational Public Servants' Disease Leave Committee. In the case of the Gangwon education office, there was no data available for over ten years from 2006 to 2017.
Members of the National Assembly's Education Committee, including Democratic Party Secretary Moon Jeong-bok and People Power Party members Ko Dong-jin and Park Deok-heum, have proposed a revision to the Education Public Servants Act that mandates the compulsory establishment and operation of the Faculty Health Committee by provincial and city education superintendents.
In response, Jeong Seong-guk, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, expressed concerns that "the revised bill may create an atmosphere where teachers hide their health issues," and stated, "Legislation should be conducted in a way that minimizes adverse effects."