Controversy Over 5·18 Removal from Curriculum, Ministry of Education Says "Policy Research Team's Decision"

Controversy Over Democracy Decline and Political Criticism Explained
"Some Elements Greatly Omitted to Reduce Learning Burden"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] As controversy continues over the exclusion of the term '5·18 Democratic Movement' from the government's 2022 revised curriculum, the Ministry of Education has explained that there was no intentionality behind it. The ministry stated that the decision was made based on the judgment of policy researchers aiming to reduce the learning burden.

Earlier, the Ministry of Education disclosed draft curricula by subject in August last year and officially began revising the curriculum, announcing the '2022 Revised Curriculum' in December. However, criticism arose as the term '5·18 Democratic Movement' did not appear even once in the social studies curricula for elementary, middle, and high schools, including social studies, history, integrated social studies, Korean history, and East Asian history.

The 5·18 Democratic Movement was first included as a 'content element' in the 7th social studies curriculum in 2004, and was incorporated into the 'achievement standards' in the 2015 revised social studies curriculum. In the curriculum prepared during the Park Geun-hye administration in 2015, the 5·18 Democratic Movement was mentioned a total of seven times alongside the April 19 Revolution and the June Democratic Uprising.

Strong criticism has followed from the political sphere. Opposition party lawmakers on the National Assembly Education Committee held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 4th, urging the cancellation of the curriculum approval, while lawmakers from the Gwangju region also held a press conference at the Gwangju City Council on the same day to condemn the deletion of the term 5·18 Democratic Movement.

In response, the Ministry of Education explained, “The 2022 revised curriculum significantly omitted learning elements across all subjects to reduce the learning burden,” adding, “The policy researchers also omitted the 5.18 content along with other overall elements from the learning components.” The ministry further noted that the initial draft submitted by the history curriculum policy research team, formed in December 2021 before the current government took office, did not include the 5·18 Democratic Movement.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education stated, “All opinions received through public communication channels were forwarded to the research team without selection, and the research team reviewed and reflected some issues where appropriate,” adding, “The relevant content is planned to be included in the announcement of the criteria for approved textbooks scheduled for the end of this month or early next month.”