Gyeongnam Office of Education, "Can Punishment Achieve Community Peace?" ... Restoring Relationships Through Restorative Justice!

From the 22nd, a 3-week training to strengthen restorative practice competencies for village teachers

Gyeongnam Office of Education. / Photo by Se-ryeong Lee ryeong@

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] The Gyeongnam Office of Education will conduct a "Restorative Practice Competency Enhancement Training" every Wednesday and Thursday for three weeks starting from the 22nd.

The Office of Education has prepared the training for 37 village teachers at the Gyeongnam Happy Village School and Changwon Education Support Office Masan Branch to apply restorative justice in life and in the field.

According to the Office of Education, "Restorative Justice" is a new philosophy and alternative paradigm of justice that focuses not on punishment and control in the process of resolving wrongful behavior, but on restoring the harm and repairing broken relationships among the parties involved in the incident.

An official from the Office of Education stated that every year, the School Innovation Division and the Happy Education District Office of the provincial education office sequentially open basic and advanced courses on building restorative schools and communities for village teachers to strengthen restorative competencies.

"This year, the Happy Education District has been fully introduced to all education support offices, making the role of village teachers even more important," they said. "There was a demand from village teachers to apply restorative justice in life and school settings and to enhance their competencies in order to build peaceful communities."

The Office of Education explained that to create safe and peaceful schools and villages, the training combines theory and practice to deeply understand restorative justice and to develop expertise in running programs that practice restorative justice. The training is structured as an intensive course consisting of a total of 45 sessions.

They added that the training will cover topics such as ▲ how to educationally handle conflicts caused by children ▲ whether community peace can be achieved solely by punishing wrongdoers ▲ and ways to practice restorative justice beyond retributive discipline at home and in the village.

Village teacher Moon Seonhyun said, "Through this training, I gained confidence to resolve conflicts by leading respect and voluntary responsibility instead of punishment in conflict situations."

Lee Oisuk, head of the School Innovation Division, said, "I hope village teachers become the seeds that practice restorative justice to strengthen relationships and community, build peaceful village education communities, and play a significant role in expanding the Gyeongnam education ecosystem."