Teachers march in protest after wave of suicides amid pressure from parents

Teachers protest in Yeouido, West Seoul Photo: EPA

About 200,000 South Korean teachers took to the streets to protest the weekend after a young teacher committed suicide under intense pressure at work, becoming the third educator to commit suicide in recent months.

Black-clad teachers rallied outside the National Assembly in the capital Seoul on Saturday, demanding stronger protections against pushy parents and revising a vague clause in the Child Protection Act that could hold teachers accountable for child abuse for what they consider necessary disciplinary action.

Tens of thousands were expected to continue protesting on Monday to pay tribute to the 23-year-old teacher who committed suicide in her classroom in July.

Diary entries, work journals and text messages discovered by her cousin reported that in the months before her death, she was bombarded with complaints from her parents, according to the BBC.

“My chest feels too tight. It feels like I'm falling somewhere. I don’t even know where I am,” she wrote in her diary, revealing that she was so absorbed in her work that she “wanted to let go of the situation.”

The suicide of a teacher has sparked a wave of large-scale rallies, with Monday's rally taking place despite initial warnings from the education ministry that a protest holiday could lead to disciplinary action.

This follows the deaths of two more teachers who

26 out of every 100,000 people – about 13,300 Koreans – committed suicide in 2021, up 0.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the national statistical office in September last year.

In response to demands for a safer work environment and stronger legal protections, the government agreed to consider an amendment to the Child Protection Act.

In late August, the Ministry of Education also unveiled plans to introduce a new collective system a complaint response in schools that will protect teachers from abusive accusations from parents, as well as the implementation of new rules that will help teachers control disruptive behavior in the classroom.