Gwon Gwang-taek, Gyeongbuk Provincial Councilor, Proposes Placement of 'Isolation Classrooms' and 'Special Discipline Teachers' to Protect Teaching Authority

Gyeongbuk Provincial Council member Kwon Gwang-taek (People Power Party, Andong 2) stated on the 30th, "The Gyeongbuk Office of Education should actively consider the deployment of detention rooms and deans to proactively respond to the protection of teachers' rights."

Ahead of the administrative audit of the Gyeongbuk Office of Education scheduled for November 7, Councilor Kwon proposed measures to protect teachers' rights, saying, "The recent surge in violations of teachers' rights is not a sudden phenomenon. Teachers have endured infringements by students and parents out of their sense of duty, but the root cause is that educational institutions and systems have failed to take the lead in protecting teachers, allowing the problem to fester."

Kwon Gwang-taek, Gyeongbuk Provincial Councilor.

Although the Ministry of Education has announced the 'Student Life Guidance Plan' for teachers as a temporary measure, and the National Assembly has passed the 'Four Laws for the Protection of Teachers' Rights' to restore teachers' rights, threats to teachers still exist.

Councilor Kwon emphasized, "There is a need to independently establish more reliable measures to protect teachers," introducing the U.S. systems of detention rooms and deans, and explained the necessity for the Gyeongbuk Office of Education to consider their adoption.

The 'detention room' is interpreted in Korean as a suspension or isolation classroom, a separate classroom for guiding students with behavioral problems, isolated from regular classrooms and unable to participate in regular lessons.

The 'dean' is a special disciplinary teacher responsible for guiding problem students separated into the detention room. These teachers are professionally trained to respond to and manage problematic behavior and are granted the authority to impose long-term suspensions if the student's behavior does not improve under their independent judgment and responsibility.

When a student's violation of teachers' rights occurs in a regular classroom, subject teachers or homeroom teachers can officially request detention from the school. If the school decides on detention, the problematic student spends a certain period in the detention room completing special assignments and reflecting on their behavior.

Councilor Kwon Gwang-taek stated, "The detention room and dean system are not merely imitations of advanced countries' policies but are valuable as a kind of deliberation system to restore the authority of teachers without resorting to extreme punishment or coercive measures." He added, "I plan to focus on questioning measures to restore teachers' rights during the upcoming educational administrative audit and will actively recommend benchmarking advanced systems to help stabilize the educational field as soon as possible."