Progressive educational chiefs reject ministry’s anti-poster directive

Local education offices led by progressive superintendents rejected the Education Ministry’s recent directive to curb the spread of political posters at middle and high schools.

The ministry last Wednesday sent out guidelines to provincial education offices expressing concerns that the academic atmosphere may be damaged by the wave of the so-called daejabo movement.

Daejabo, or hand-written posters dealing with various issues, have been appearing across the country after a Korea University student posted one titled “How are you?” on Dec. 10, dealing with controversial social issues including the railway strike and the debate over healthcare privatization.

Progressive educational chiefs said the ministry’s order may violate children’s freedom of speech and did not relay the statement to schools in their regions.

“Freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution and the ordinance on students’ human rights and high school students are no exception,” Jang Hui-guk, superintendent of Gwangju, was quoted as saying during a meeting with senior officials on Monday.

Other educational offices in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces refused to send it to schools. The office in North Jeolla Province added a sentence calling for respecting students’ freedom of expression when sending the statement to schools.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)