A teacher distributes question and answer sheets to students for this year’s first nationwide test on their scholastic abilities at a high school in the city of Chuncheon, 85 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on March 23, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Part-time teachers are increasing in proportion to homeroom teachers in middle and high schools as regular teachers increasingly avoid taking responsibility, a state-run institute said Tuesday.
The Korean Educational Developmental Institute reported that among all 110,295 homeroom teachers at middle and high schools across the country as of 2022, 27.4 percent were part-time teachers.
In 2013, only 15.1 percent worked part-time.
Two-thirds of the 23,000 part-time teachers at middle schools (15,494) were designated as homeroom teachers, accounting for 28.5 percent of all middle school teachers.
The data also showed that 26.2 percent of 55,922 high school homeroom teachers work part-time.
The Ministry of Education advised municipal and provincial offices of education in 2020 to refrain from designating part-time teachers as homeroom teachers or sending them to positions with great responsibility.
The government also advised schools not to allocate tasks unfairly among part-time and full-time teachers.
The reality, however, barely reflects these directives.
Experts argue that the surging workload for homeroom teachers and the reluctance to discipline students or communicate with their parents amid the deteriorating authority of teachers have prompted full-time teachers to shun these positions.
Despite the rising difficulties, the bonus payment for homeroom teachers has been frozen at 130,000 won (US$103) per month for the last eight years. The surging number of part-time teachers, too, contributed to recent patterns.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
