[Suwan News = Yoon Byung-ik, Citizen Reporter] On the 16th, active-duty teachers held a “Rally Urging the National Assembly to Enact Legislation to Restore Public Education” in front of the National Assembly building. This rally, the ninth of its kind, emphasized solidarity and mutual responsibility within the educational community.
During the first part of today’s rally, participants argued for the need to establish practical measures to provide substitute staff to protect teachers’ health; they then called for solidarity and mutual responsibility within the educational community, urging everyone to join hands. In the second part, they criticized the Ministry of Education’s draft guidelines as “armchair bureaucracy” and called for the allocation of budget and personnel to protect teachers from malicious complaints, the establishment of practical measures enabling immediate on-site responses, and amendments to higher-level laws. They also chanted additional slogans in support of middle and high school teachers as well as special education teachers, arguing that the entire education sector must change.
Furthermore, a key difference between this rally and previous ones was that it took place in front of the National Assembly building, a move apparently intended to increase pressure on the National Assembly and the political sphere as a whole.
Furthermore, during the rally, six domestic teachers’ organizations read a joint statement declaring their intention to stand in solidarity starting with this rally. It appears that these organizations have agreed—transcending political parties, factions, ideologies, and political lines—on the issues and concerns raised by teachers and have decided to act together.
Meanwhile, the number of people who gathered at this rally was approximately 40,000 (according to the organizers’ estimates), which was confirmed to be significantly higher than the 30,000 the organizers had originally anticipated.
Yoon Byung-ik, Citizen Reporter
[We have corrected the title and lead paragraph to refer to “current teachers”—the organizers of the rally—rather than “six teachers’ organizations.” We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. ~ Editor’s Note]
