Conservative Academics Back Official History Textbooks

A group of 500 conservative academics on Monday declared their support for government plans to reintroduce official history textbooks to middle and high schools.

"Historians seem unable to convey an objective view of history if left to their own devices," they said at a press conference in Seoul.

"We are now in a situation where the government must take emergency measures to provide accurate history textbooks for young children."

Some retired school principals separately held press conferences in support of the government's plan.

The government accuses the current, independently published textbooks of leftwing bias.

But the same day a collective of activist groups including some 600 senior academics in a statement urged the government to ditch the plan. They called the project, "a move to standardize education and a dangerous attempt to distort history."

Ninety-one professors at Sogang University and 111 at Chungang University signed up to a boycott of the plan by other leading universities. Many of Korea's top universities have now said they will give the government no help with the project.