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The education authorities have concluded that the ¡°anti-war¡± class materials that the Korea Teachers¡¯ Union (KTU) posted on its homepage on Monday are not proper for class-room use.
Accordingly, the Education Ministry sent the KTU an official document stating that teachers should refrain from conducting anti-war classes, and if teachers conduct anti-war classes in an ideological way, they will be dealt with according to the law.
There are, however, opinions that the ministry¡¯s urge to refrain and its decision to take legal measures may be nothing but mere talk because there is no way to determine how anti-war classes are actually conducted in schools. The KTU designated the days from June 28 to July 3 a mourning period for the late Kim Sun-il and have held anti-war classes in elementary, middle and high schools.
An official from the Education Ministry said Tuesday, ¡°We asked the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) to analyze the anti-war class materials, and the KICE concluded that there are some problems with the materials.¡± He also said, ¡°The KTU said that the materials were collected from newspaper articles on Iraq including the troop dispatch, but the analysis showed that the content was mostly from anti-American and anti-troop deployment viewpoints. It is also found that many materials resort to emotion rather than logic, thus causing concern that they may instill prejudiced ideologies in students.¡± The KICE expressed its opinions in saying that if the materials are to be reinforced, it would be desirable to exclude Kim Sun-il¡¯s personal information and criticisms against the government¡¯s policies. The materials consist of Kim Sun-il¡¯s profile, summary of the events, will, emails, Iraqis¡¯ opinions about the troop dispatch to Iraq, the summary of pros and cons and the National Assembly¡¯s resolution to reexamine the plan of the additional troop dispatch.
The Ministry asked the KTU in an official document to refrain from holding anti-war classes and to revise the class materials since the classes can damage the neutrality of education and instill a distorted point of view in students, who lack the ability to judge value. In response, the KTU said, ¡°The purpose of anti-war classes is to teach the importance of peace and life. For now, we do not plan to change the materials, but we will consider adding some more materials.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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