2,000 teachers reject history textbook

More than 2,000 elementary school teachers on Wednesday rejected the use of state-authored history textbooks, claiming they do not correctly illustrate Korean history.

About 2,600 teachers, members of the liberal Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union, vowed they would not use the textbooks made for sixth graders.

Since March, sixth graders have been taught with new state-issued history textbooks. The new textbooks, first published in September 2014 on a trial basis, were revised after having been criticized for errors and allegedly biased content.

All elementary school students in Korea study with state-issued textbooks and learn history as part of social studies.

“The textbook still deleted contents about the sexual slavery enforced by the Japanese government, and justified the May 16 military coup. Teaching incorrect history is educationally dangerous for elementary students who learn the history for the first time,” said the teachers.

They urged the Education Ministry to abolish the history textbooks for elementary schools and vowed they would teach students with their own supplementary materials.

The ministry, however, has refuted that it deliberately deleted the sexual slavery part, claiming that teaching the children with words such as “sexual slavery” or “comfort women” is not be appropriate.

It has also maintained its stance that it would not allow any extra classes that are not approved by school principals in advance.

Meanwhile, the government is currently working on publishing state-authored history textbooks for middle and high schools, amid persistent controversy over their reinstatement and the publication process that has mostly been kept confidential, citing security risk for the writers.

By Lee Hyun-jeong  (rene@heraldcorp.com)