Busan Office of Education Significantly Reduces the Ratio of Temporary Teachers as Homeroom Teachers

Measures to Assign Regular Teachers as Homeroom Teachers

Record-High Recruitment of Elementary and Secondary Teachers Next Year

Busan Metropolitan Office of Education (Superintendent Ha Yun-su) has rolled up its sleeves to resolve the reluctance of regular teachers to take on homeroom teacher duties.

Currently, Busan has one of the highest proportions of contract teachers serving as homeroom teachers among metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide.

This appears to be the result of the Ministry of Education's policy to accept all applicants for honorary retirement without exception. Additionally, the number of teachers on leave for childcare, "Dad's Month," and other reasons is increasing, as well as the number of participants in training programs for personal capacity building such as sabbatical study years and special training.

As a result, the number of contract teachers in the Busan area is increasing, and the number of contract teachers assigned as homeroom teachers is also rising annually.

Furthermore, in private schools, it is inevitable to hire contract teachers to prevent surplus teachers caused by class reductions due to a sharp decline in student numbers and to respond flexibly to the reorganization of specialized high school departments.

To address these issues, the Busan Office of Education plans to expand the number of selected elementary and secondary teachers for the 2025 academic year to a record high of 1,120.

They will conduct continuous inspections targeting private school corporations with a high proportion of contract teachers due to not hiring regular teachers without special reasons, and provide administrative guidance through meetings with corporate HR managers to actively hire regular teachers.

Along with this, the Office of Education will continue to guide regular teachers to be given priority in homeroom duties through the "Guidelines for the Operation of Contract Teachers in National, Public, and Private Schools." In particular, they plan to provide consulting for schools with a significantly high proportion of contract teachers serving as homeroom teachers to reduce this ratio.

In addition to these measures, the Busan Office of Education is promoting various policies to ensure that teachers do not leave the field due to honorary retirement and can focus on educational activities.

Efforts are being made to build a safe educational environment by enrolling teachers in the Teacher Protection Mutual Aid, implementing a prior application system for parent visits and consultations, and providing teachers with secure phone numbers to prevent infringement of teachers' rights.

Support for affected teachers will be further expanded, including legal consultations, lawyer appointments, medical expenses, healing costs, healing programs, and personal counseling.

Moreover, they plan to strengthen the capabilities and improve the treatment of contract teachers through various training programs such as qualification training and job training, as well as gradually expanding customized welfare benefits.