Gyeonggi Office of Education to Assign Two Health Teachers to Schools with 36 or More Classes This Year

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education will assign two health teachers to all schools with 36 or more classes this year. The Office of Education announced on the 28th that it sent an official letter containing this information to schools on the 6th of this month.

According to Article 15 of the current School Health Act (Medical Personnel, Pharmacists, and Health Teachers in Schools), schools with 36 or more classes are required to assign at least two health teachers. Although this provision was newly established in June 2021, it has not been properly enforced in schools in the Gyeonggi area. This is due to a shortage of teacher quotas allocated by the Ministry of Education and a lack of budget to hire temporary health teachers.

Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education

Accordingly, the Office of Education has independently relaxed the standard to schools with 38 or more classes instead of 36, requiring them to hire at least two health teachers. As a result, schools with 38 or more classes assigned two or more health teachers last year, but when based on the legal standard of schools with 36 or more classes, only 69% of schools had two or more health teachers assigned.

In response to repeated criticisms that the School Health Act was not being observed in schools, the Office of Education implemented the official letter this year to assign health teachers as stipulated by law.

An official from the Office of Education stated, "As a result of continuously requesting the Ministry of Education to increase the quota, some of it has been reflected, and we have secured the budget to hire temporary health teachers this year, so health teachers will be assigned according to the School Safety Act. Since this concerns students' health and safety, we will continue to make efforts going forward."