Gyeonggi Education Office to Protect Teachers from Indiscriminate Child Abuse Reports with Training on April 22-23

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education will hold an online training session titled "Capacity Building for Writing Superintendents' Opinions on Child Abuse Report Responses" over two days, from April 22 to 23, to protect teachers who are struggling due to indiscriminate child abuse reports.

The superintendent's opinion system was introduced in September 2023, following the death of an elementary school teacher earlier that year, in response to demands for the protection of teachers' legitimate educational activities and improvements in the enforcement of laws related to child abuse. The system aims to ensure that the unique circumstances of schools are considered during investigations and inquiries into child abuse cases, and that the legitimacy of teachers' disciplinary guidance is reflected.

When a child abuse report is filed, an investigation team from the local education support office visits the school to conduct an investigation and verification, and must submit a certificate confirming the educational activities to the superintendent within five days. The superintendent then has seven days to determine whether the teacher's actions constituted legitimate disciplinary guidance and must communicate this to the local government and police, who are required to take it into account during their investigation and inquiry.

The legitimacy of disciplinary guidance is determined with reference to relevant laws and regulations, school rules, official notices regarding teachers' student guidance, classroom regulations, agreements among educational stakeholders, previous cases, and court precedents.

Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education Southern Office

This training will focus on the following topics: the status of superintendent's opinion submissions; criteria for determining the legitimacy of disciplinary guidance; guidelines for writing the superintendent's opinion; and sharing case studies from field investigations and verifications conducted by local education support offices.

The provincial office reported that a total of 230 superintendent's opinions were submitted to investigative agencies?75 cases in 2023 and 155 cases in 2024. Of these, 167 cases (73%) were found to involve legitimate disciplinary guidance by teachers.

An official from the provincial office stated, "Through this training, we aim to protect teachers from indiscriminate child abuse reports and strengthen the creation of a safe educational environment," adding, "We will continue to enhance support for schools to ensure that not a single teacher is unfairly accused."