The debate over teacher evaluations is heating up in South Korea as the government seeks support for a performance-based evaluation plan. Under the proposed plan, teachers ranked in the bottom 0.1 percent will be forced to undergo special training. If they remain in that group for three years, they will be fired. Educators in the top 0.1 percent will be rewarded with incentives. According to a 2009 Korea.net article, 1,570 schools currently have the teacher evaluation system in place as part of a pilot test being conducted by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology. A 2009 Korea Times article explains that the purpose of the evaluations is to rid the education system of poor teachers while rewarding good teachers for their performance.
This proposal is popular among parents, who overwhelmingly supported the idea in a 2007 poll. The government-sponsored poll concluded that nearly 80 percent of parents want to see some sort of teacher evaluations. Of the respondents, 30.3 percent said the system is "greatly needed," and a little more than half said it was needed on some level, Korea Beat reports in a 2007 blog post. Sixty percent of teachers also look at an evaluation system favorably, according to a 2009 Korea Times editorial.
While parents and, to a lesser degree, educators are for the evaluations, it may be surprising that the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA) said they would accept the system with no preconditions. The KFTA, which represents 45 percent of teachers in South Korea, initially had reservations regarding the system, but it now supports the idea.
"Teachers have become a target of public criticism since we opposed the introduction of the program," KFTA President Lee Won-hee told The Korea Times. "If it's apparently helpful in upgrading teachers' capabilities, we have no reason to oppose it."
While the KFTA has had a change of heart, not all unions are convinced the system will be effective. The Korea Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), a smaller union representing 15 percent of educators, is heavily critical of the plan. "The government has not made objective criteria for the evaluation," KTU spokesperson Eum Min-yong told The Korea Times. "It's to kick progressive teachers off campus."
Despite the controversy and opposition, the ministry hopes for the system to be fully implemented by 2010.
