Ei-iE

Education International’s General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen has apologised to the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations for having urged the South Korean authorities in October 2015 to reverse their decision on state-controlled history textbooks.

Education International (EI) communicated its views on 29 October, 2015 to the Korean President Park Geun-hye at the request of another member organisation, the Korean Teachers’ Union (KTU), which is protesting the government’s measure to take full control over the contents of history textbooks. The Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations (KFTA), however, is not contesting their government’s plan to limit the number of secondary school history textbooks. The KFTA says that it was consulted by the authorities on their plans for a single approved volume and will cooperate in the implementation of the new policy.

Education International General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen explains that as a rule Education International does not scrutinize national governments’ education policy without first consulting with all its member organisations in the concerned country.

“In this case we immediately contacted the Korean President after we had learned that teachers opposing the governments’ plans were threatened with disciplinary action. But we should of course first have checked with our KFTA colleagues. We did not, which was a mistake. And we apologise for that,” he said.?

Van Leeuwen, however, notes that “the apology does not negate Education International’s view that governments must respect the academic freedom and professional autonomy of teachers in all circumstances, and specifically their right to freely choose their teaching methods and materials.”