one more blow against Confucian values

In South Korea this time, not the North: teachers may end up being evaluated by parents and students. Thus disappears the old notion of the respected teacher. Eat my shorts, seonsaeng-nim!

A teacher evaluation system is set to be introduced as early as March while the college entrance examinations will play a less role in deciding students' admission to a college, according to Vice Prime Minister Ahn Byung-young on Monday.

"Since the teachers' qualities are the sole source of public education we need to find a way to encourage our teachers to be on alert," said the vice prime minister who is concurrently serving as the minister of education and human resources development in a special lecture at Jinsun Girls' Junior High School in Kangnam, southern Seoul.

The education minister argued the nation's public educators need to be on their toes to develop themselves just like any other workers in other fields. "The quality of education depends on the quality of teachers," he said.

[...]

The committee, however, is still debating over whether to have teachers be evaluated by their students and school parents, according to the official. "An evaluation system by students and their parents needs to be reviewed over a long period of time. We will announce our final proposal at a public hearing in some time around March," he added.

Once and if the new system is introduced, public school teachers in all elementary, middle and high schools will be evaluated by their colleagues and possibly by their students and parents every year and receive ratings on their performance.

Such ratings may be used in deciding promotions, appointments and layoffs of teachers, according to the ministry. However, how much effect the new teacher evaluation system will have on the nation's public education as well as whether the system will be introduced still needs to be seen as both the teachers' groups including the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union, a progressive teachers' organization, and parent groups such as the School Parents' Association for True Education have all expressed their opposition to the government proposal.

Alas...

_