This photo, provided by the education office in Gangwon Province, shows an elementary school teacher running an online class on April 22, 2020.
SEOUL, May 13 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study has revealed that teachers’ satisfaction with their teaching career generally decreases as time goes by.
According to a survey conducted by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union, of 49,084 teachers at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools across the country, 47.8 percent of the respondents said they were “very satisfied” or “generally satisfied” with their teaching job.
The average satisfaction level was 3.39 points based on a scale from one to five with one point being “very unsatisfied” and five representing “very satisfied.”
For those with less than five years of experience, the average satisfaction score was 3.40 points.
Satisfaction was 3.39 points for teachers with “more than five years and less than 10 years” of experience, and 3.36 points for between 10 and 20 years of experience, showing that the satisfaction level will generally decrease as experience is accrued.
In terms of satisfaction by school level, special schools had the highest scores of 3.48, followed by elementary schools at 3.42, middle schools at 3.40, high schools at 3.35 and kindergartens at 3.17.
Respondents cited “excessive administrative work,” accounting for 50.2 percent, as the most difficult part of their educational activities.
This was followed by “student learning lethargy,” accounting for 38.7 percent and “students who cannot concentrate on class,” accounting for 38.6 percent.
In the past two years, “excessive administrative work and the nation’s misguided education policy” were also chosen by the most respondents, accounting for 66.2 percent, as experience that negatively affected educational activities.
Respondents cited “transfer of administrative work to the regional offices of education,” accounting for 62.3 percent and “establishment of measures for students who cannot concentrate on their classes,” accounting for 39.1 percent, as necessary to enable teachers to focus on education.
The most common tasks for the nation, including the Ministry of Education, were the abolition of competitive education, which accounted for 45.5 percent, such as the abolition of the teacher performance system and the teacher evaluation system, and the enactment and revision of the law guaranteeing teachers’ right to education, which accounted for 45.3 percent.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
