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‘Practice of giving presents to teachers disappeared,’ survey reveals

‘Practice of giving presents to teachers disappeared,’ survey reveals

Posted September. 25, 2017 07:24,   

Updated September. 25, 2017 08:46

한국어

A 39-year-old parent who has a third-grade child recently felt the change induced by the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act when her child was planned to go on a field trip. Her child is serving as a class president this semester. The parents of a class president should have prepared snacks for both a home room teacher and classmates whenever there is a school trip, but this time, she was told from another parent that she “does not need to prepare anything at all.” “In a mobile chat room for parents, many jokingly said ‘Let’s all praise (Kim) Young-ran!’” she said, referring to the former Chief Justice who drafted the anti-graft law, also known as the “Kim Young-ran Act.”

Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced Sunday the result of a survey asking whether and how the anti-graft law has had impact since it took effect a year ago. In the survey, 83% of parents and 85% of faculty responded that “the practice of giving presents as a token of gratitude or offering bribes has disappeared” since the enforcement of the anti-graft law. Some 76% of parents and 82% of teachers also said that “the practice of illicit solicitation in school no longer exists.” The online survey was conducted of 36,947 parents and 18,101 school faculty.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced that there has been a total of 13 cases of violation since the Kim Young-ran law were enforced. Eleven cases were in which teachers or school staff inadvertently received beverage or lunch boxes from parents and immediately returned. Other two include a case where a private elementary school accepted the great-grandson of the school founder, who earlier lost the lottery, and another case in which teachers at a private high school solicited the employment of their colleague temporary teacher as a regular teacher to an employment juror.



Kyung-Im Woo woohaha@donga.com