Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union and Practical Teachers' Association urge Jeollanam-do Gwangju Office of Education to implement '100% written and essay-type evaluation'

(Jeonnam Gwangju = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang Ah-reum = The Jeonnam and Gwangju branches of the National Teachers and Education Workers Union and the Gwangju-Jeonnam Practical Teachers' Association urged the Jeonnam Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education to withdraw its policy of implementing 100% written and essay-type evaluations on the 16th.

About 20 teachers and executives from the Jeonnam and Gwangju Korean Teachers and Education Workers Unions attended a meeting with the Unified Office of Education the previous day and conveyed the opinions of teachers in the field regarding the expansion of written and essay-type evaluations and requested a withdrawal of the policy.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union presented a survey conducted on 1,617 teachers last July and claimed, “97% (1,569 people) responded that the policy implementation procedures were inadequate, and 83.1% (1,344 people) responded that they were opposed to full implementation, suggesting strong opposition on the ground.”

He then pointed out, "We expressed our opposition to the expansion due to concerns about student, parent, and teacher anxiety and classroom confusion, and requested that if we absolutely do so, we should consider expanding the ratio or operating a pilot school to minimize side effects and confusion, but the Office of Education's position has not changed."

The Unified Office of Education is pushing for a plan to convert the evaluation of 5th and 6th grade elementary school students and 1st grade middle school students to 100% written and essay-based evaluations starting next year, and then expand the middle school target to 1st to 3rd graders by the 2030 school year.

Teachers pointed out that the biggest problem was the procedural issue of unilaterally deciding on the timing and method of implementation without sufficient agreement and deliberation, rather than whether to expand written and essay-type evaluations.

The appropriate evaluation method may vary depending on the characteristics of the subject, and it was also criticized that the Office of Education's uniform enforcement of a specific evaluation method could damage teachers' autonomy and expertise in evaluation.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union requested the Unified Office of Education to reexamine the policy of full implementation without on-site agreement, collect official opinions from all teachers, and present measures to guarantee teachers’ autonomy in evaluation by the 21st.