This Sept. 6, 2021, file photo shows a teacher teaching a class with partial attendance at an elementary school in northern Seoul. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Eight out of 10 South Korean teachers feel anxiety about being reported for child abuse by their students, a survey showed Wednesday.
According to the survey of 5,520 kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers across the country conducted by the Korea Federation of Teachers’ Associations, 77 percent of the respondents answered that they felt a sense of anxiety over the possibility that they could be reported for child abuse by their students during educational activities or school counseling and guidance activities.
At 47.5 percent, close to half of the respondents said that they had experienced being reported themselves or seeing their fellow teachers be reported.
When asked what the most difficult thing was when being reported, 65 percent said that they felt wronged about being reported for fair educational activities, while 20.1 percent said that the reports are accepted as a fait accompli and the presumption of innocence is neglected.
“There was a teacher who was reported for emotional abuse after asking a child roaming about the classroom to sit down,” a teacher at an elementary school in Gyeonggi Province said.
At 87.3 percent, almost all of the respondents pointed out the need to devise a teacher protection measure for child abuse reports that can occur during normal educational activities or school counseling and guidance activities.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
