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“A teacher who does not accept a bribe from parents, a teacher who publishes a class yearbook or a class newspaper with students, a teacher who works hard to teach, a teacher who promotes students’ autonomy and creativity, a teacher who speaks up for other teachers, and a teacher who is popular with students.”

Do you know who this kind of teacher is? In 1989, the Korean Ministry of Education sent an official letter titled “how to identify unionised teachers in your school” to every principal. The intention of this letter was to encourage principals to find and report this kind of teacher to education authorities or the police. But, ironically, contrary to its intention, the letter demonstrated well who the KTU teachers were: dedicated professionals committed to providing quality education.

After the foundation of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU, or Jeongyojo in Korean) in 1989, the government immediately made the KTU illegal and fired 1527 teachers who did not withdraw their KTU membership and did not submit an apology letter to the education authorities. It was very simple. If a union teacher withdrew their union membership and sent in an apology for participating in the union to the education authorities, they could keep their teaching position. Otherwise, they would be fired immediately. Many teachers who tried to avoid the mass firings were silenced in schools. 1527 KTU teachers were fired. The government stigmatised the unionised KTU teachers as teachers who tried to infuse their students with the wrong kind of thoughts. A long journey to ‘Cham’ education ^[1] and democracy began.

Why did teachers form the union?

What do you think Korean education and schools looked like in the 1980s? Teachers did not have any autonomy in their teaching. They had to follow, as their principal and the government gave them orders. Everything in school was controlled by the authorities. Schools in South Korea in thein were as follows. There was:

• heavy corporal punishment of students
• authoritarian military-style culture like students having short haircuts
• taking money (Chonji) from parents as a common practice
• competition-oriented education, as students competed to get into a top university
• no freedom of speech and no concept of teachers’ rights nor students’ rights
• the practice of publicly making a chart of how many students paid tuition in each class to urge them to pay.

Some brave teachers tried to refuse the role of government puppet, and rejected the government’s dictates . These teachers formed a union to let the voices of teachers be heard because they wanted to educate students according to their conscience. On the 28th of May 1989, the founding president of the KTU, the late Young-gyu YOON, declared the historic establishment of the KTU and read the founding manifesto at Yon-sei university. Later, hundreds of union members were arrested and imprisoned by the military dictatorial regime, and more than 1500 were dismissed.

The legalisation of the KTU

In 1999, after 10 years of hard struggles and fights, the KTU was legalised. This victory was the result of the collaborative work of KTU grassroots members, students, parents, and civic organisations supporting democracy in Korean society. The KTU contributed greatly to raising the level and quality of Korean education. For more than 10 years, the Cham education movement of KTU members had led to innovation in subject teaching, the creation of new educational values such as “Korean reunification education” and environmental education, pedagogical advances towards student-centred class management, and the revitalisation of student and teacher autonomy. After the KTU was launched, the oppressive and one-sided military style school culture changed a lot. The KTU was the best classroom, wherein teachers themselves could be living examples of democracy for students. After legalisation, the KTU also fought against education agendas based on neoliberal ideologies such as school accountability, teacher’s merit-based pay, and teacher evaluation systems. The KTU had grown to 17 provincial chapters, 12 standing committees, and 6 special committees, and reached up to around 100,000 members.

“Harmful insects” and delegalisation

In October 2013, the KTU received a sheet of paper by fax, saying that the KTU was “not regarded as a legitimate labour union.” The Park Geun-hye administration deprived the KTU of its legal status on the grounds that there were 9 dismissed teachers among its 60,000 union members. It was a superficial reason, but in truth there was a hostile attitude towards the KTU from president Park Geun-hye. When she was a lawmaker in 2005, she compared unionised teachers to ‘harmful insects’ making their nation red in a public rally, which was organised against the revision of the private school law. Before the final notice, the Park administration said that “if the KTU kicks out the 9 dismissed teachers who are working in the KTU head office, the KTU can keep its legal status, but if it does not follow the government’s order, it will lose its legal status.” Through the general vote of the KTU members, the KTU decided to stand with the 9 teachers even if it became illegal. So the KTU lost its legal status in 2013. After that, there was a long struggle of seven years until its legal status was restored in 2020. The legalisation of the KTU returned with democracy in 2020 when president Park Geun-hye stepped down after massive candlelit vigils of citizens.

The KTU was created out of the conscience of teachers who could no longer watch the suicides of students who shouted “Happiness is not in proportion to school test scores.” Despite the military governments’ harsh repression of the KTU, what the KTU dreamed of and worked hard for slowly became realised in the education field one by one. The teachers did not worry about the threats from the government. They overcame the oppressive working conditions by thinking of their students’ smiling faces, shining eyes, and the future democratic society the students would live in. Korean democracy is still not stable. However, the fact that we were able to achieve democracy to this degree was thanks to the bloody and tearful efforts of senior union members who overcame long oppression and exploitation. The KTU became a member of Education International in 1993, and it continues to work with education and labour organisations throughout the world for a better future.