A fellow teacher weeps in front of an elementary school in Daejeon on Sept. 8, 2023, after one of the school’s teachers took her own life after suffering from incessant complaints from a school parent for four years. (Image courtesy of Yonhap News)
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The government will provide mental health tests to all school teachers who want them and, in the long run, devise an exclusive psychological testing tool to check teachers’ mental health on a regular basis, officials said Friday.
The plan was released jointly by the education and health ministries amid concern about collective depression in the teaching community in the wake of a series of suicides by teachers distressed by abusive school parents and unruly students.
In one of the latest cases, a teacher in her 40s took her own life in the central city of Daejeon in early September after suffering from incessant complaints for four years from the parent of a student she had disciplined for unruly behavior during class.
Under the relief plan, mental health tests will be available for all teachers within the ongoing second semester, and those in need will also be provided with counseling programs at the national treatment centers for teachers or psychotherapy at private medical centers, officials said.
The tests will be conducted online or at the health ministry’s mental health centers or teacher treatment centers nationwide, with priority to be given to kindergarten, elementary and special education teachers who are at a higher risk of distress and those who are suffering from trauma.
The health ministry also plans to provide mobile counseling services to teachers by sending buses carrying counseling specialists to schools in need.
Going forward, the government will also develop a special psychological testing tool for teachers and conduct testing on them regularly every two years. It marks the first time the government seeks to devise such a mental health testing tool for a certain vocational group.
“Restoring the mental health of school teachers is the starting point toward normalizing public education,” Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said, pledging to maintain a special team dedicated to supporting distressed teachers.
(Yonhap)
