The Korean Constitution guarantees all people the right to education on equal terms. In other words, the Korean Constitution prescribes in the Article 31(1) that all citizens shall have an equal right to receive an education corresponding to their abi ...
The Korean Constitution guarantees all people the right to education on equal terms. In other words, the Korean Constitution prescribes in the Article 31(1) that all citizens shall have an equal right to receive an education corresponding to their abilities. It is because that the right to education is a basis of the right to pursue happiness and to live like a human being.
This research focuses on the need to prevent teachers from being complicated in expensive, frivolous, harassing lawsuits by limitation of responsibility for the harms occurred during educational activities. This research covers, inter alia, legislative alternatives protecting teachers disciplining their students.
It can be spelled over as one of legislative options to reorganize the existing law, "Special Act on the Improvement of Teachers' Status", the purpose of which is to improve the status of teachers and strive for the development of education by giving honorable treatment to and improving treatment of teachers and consolidating the guarantee of their status. And it also can be considered to make ordinance concerning educational authority, or separate "Special Act on the Protection of Educational Activities".
Some people say that education does not function properly owing to the lack of mutual trust and dependence between subjects of education. It is a diagnosis from education field that teachers experience a considerable nuisance from just educational activities by losing their educational prestige.
Overall poor management of public education weakens our international competitiveness by harming a serious damage to the foundation of knowledge based society in the era of global age. Anyway, although protection of teachers' authority is championed, it is reality that the concept of teachers' authority is not established definitely yet. Therefore, it is an important matter to set up and consider a countermeasure against disturbance of educational activities.
On May 23, 2001, there was a heated controversy in the House of Representatives concerning the proposition of Teacher Protection Act (TPA). The Act was grounded on the presumption that public schools were more and more uncontrollable and that teachers are reluctant to discipline disturbing students because they feared lawsuits. Proponents of the proposed act asserted that, if Congress passed the legislative bill and provided immunity from such suits, teachers would feel free to reestablish classroom orders and public schools would maximize the efficiency of education.
The core method which the TPA provides is to limit responsibility. It says that no teacher in a school shall be liable for harm caused by an act or omission, if the act was within the scope of the teacher's employment and was carried out in efforts to control a student or maintain order in the classroom or school.
It is difficult to estimate the influence of the TPA. But, an analysis of the TPA's controversy in Congress, the legislation, and the cases followed by suggests that the Act has fulfilled neither the expectations of its supporters nor the dreads of its opponents.
Above all, there is evidence that the TPA was founded on a incorrect premise. That is, there is no evidence to support the fact that each year increasingly educators face harassing lawsuits.
And there is no evidence to support the proponents' assertions that the act would lower lawsuits, make schools safer, reduce disruptions, improve education.
Although the TPA was built on a wrong premise and its consequences cannot correspond with its wordiness, the Act can still be useful in protecting teachers against lawsuits that can arise from educational activities. In fact, it did defend educators from liability in most of the reported cases. Thus, in the future, as the Act becomes more recognized, it might protect more educators from negligence liability.