"If adults fear children, the world is doomed."
Warnings that Korea's classrooms are collapsing continue to mount, yet teachers in the real world are still holding on alone. In an era when half of all educators say their professional pride has declined and four teachers a day are assaulted by students, the raw reality of eroded teaching authority has resurfaced through a television drama.
The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA) issued a commentary Tuesday, saying the drama "Cham Kyo-yook" (True Education) "exposed without reservation the raw reality of collapsed classrooms, the serious infringement of teaching authority by some students who have become uncontrollable, and the despair of teachers whose hands are tied by malicious complaints." The federation noted in particular that the show's premise, in which the education minister and a teaching authority protection bureau step in directly to protect teachers, struck a chord with educators.
Still, the KFTA stressed that "the fictional satisfaction the drama offers disappears once Monday comes," adding that "what teachers need is not the extralegal heroes of a drama, but institutional safeguards that allow real teachers to teach according to their convictions under the protection of the law."
The drama "Cham Kyo-yook" follows an omnibus structure in which a fictional government agency called the Teaching Authority Protection Bureau is deployed to a different school each episode to resolve cases of infringement on teaching authority. The fact that each episode is based on real incidents, heightening its realism, is cited as the reason it resonated with teachers.
In one storyline, a student leads school violence backed by the power of a father who is a National Assembly member. In another, a juvenile under the age of criminal responsibility repeatedly commits theft and assault, exploiting the fact that those under 14 cannot be punished.
The drama also depicts a high school girl influencer who drives a teacher to the brink by spreading false information about the teacher on social media, as well as technical high school students who make group fights an everyday occurrence by enforcing senior-junior hierarchy. Violence both inside and outside the classroom is portrayed in full.
Parents are no exception. An episode featuring a parent who falsely accuses a teacher of child abuse for legitimate discipline and pours out malicious complaints directly recalled the memory of the death of a teacher at Seoi Elementary School. The drama also tells the story of a parent who hands their child, suffering under pressure to perform academically, drugs disguised as diet pills.
Behind the drama's success lies reality. In a survey of 8,900 teachers at kindergartens, elementary, middle, high schools and universities nationwide released by the KFTA last month, 49.2 percent said their professional pride had declined over the past one to two years.
The moment teachers felt most powerless was "when their teaching authority is infringed by students or parents" (67.9 percent), and the top reason cited for avoiding the teaching profession was "exposure to indiscriminate child abuse reports and parental complaints" (28.9 percent).
Following the Seoi Elementary School incident in 2023, the government and the National Assembly revised the "four laws to protect teaching authority," specifying guardians' obligation to respect educational activities and establishing mechanisms to legally protect teachers' legitimate guidance of students. The school teaching authority protection committees were transferred to district offices of education, and legal and psychological support was expanded. However, teachers' groups point out that a gap still remains between the system and what is felt on the ground.
Kang Joo-ho, president of the KFTA, said, "To change the reality in which four teachers a day are assaulted by students, we must promptly prepare practical measures such as a state responsibility system for lawsuits related to educational activities, the institutionalization and specialization of systems to respond to malicious complaints, and the strengthening of parents' educational responsibilities."
