History textbook authors vow to reject ministry's revision orders

Authors of seven high school history textbooks, which have been accused of ideological bias along with a right-wing textbook, said Sunday they won't comply with education ministry orders to revise their texts.

Education Minister Seo Nam-soo said last week that the ministry will conduct an in-depth review of the eight recently licensed textbooks and order them to make revisions if necessary, after one of them, published by Kyohak Publishing Co., sparked ire for containing a conservative bias.

The minister said the seven others books, which were accused of leaning left, contained similar problems as the Kyohak book.

On Sunday, authors of the seven non-Kyohak textbooks claimed in a press conference that they were unfairly lumped together with the Kyohak textbook. They also claimed the planned review of all eight texts is an attempt to favor the Kyohak book by extending the Oct. 

11 deadline for schools to choose one of them. They believe the Kyohak book alone should be subject to the review and the deadline must be kept, which would make only the

Kyohak text ineligible for selection by schools for use from next year.

"We will not follow revision recommendations or orders from the education ministry," they said in a statement, adding that they will respond with an administrative lawsuit and all other legal measures if the ministry pushes for the revision of their texts. (YONHAP)