9 Out of 10 Elementary School Teachers Handle Complaints Alone

Official Complaint Channel Unification Fails to Take Hold
Low Adoption of the "EoDream" Consultation Reservation System
"Teachers Must Be Completely Separated and Protected from the Front Lines of Complaints"

Although the Ministry of Education has decided to strengthen school-level responses to protect teachers from malicious complaints and similar issues, 9 out of 10 elementary school teachers are still left to deal with such matters on their own.

On the 15th, three days before the first anniversary of the death of Seo Ichho teacher, citizens are hanging memorial messages at a memorial space set up at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in Jongno-gu. The memorial space is located next to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Health and Safety Promotion Center and is open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on the 20th. Photo by Yongjun Cho jun21@

On April 6, the Elementary School Teachers’ Union released the results of a “Survey on the Operation of School Complaint Response Systems,” conducted among 987 elementary teachers nationwide from March 16 to March 25. When asked if they had ever received support from the school when a complaint arose, only 11.1%—just over 1 in 10 respondents—answered “yes.” The largest proportion, 37.9%, said “there was support, but it was insufficient.” This was followed by “did not request support” at 28.0%, and “requested support but did not receive it” at 12.3%. Excluding the 10.7% who said they “had no experience with complaints,” out of 881 respondents, 771 people—87.5%—ended up not receiving support at the school level.

Additionally, the majority of respondents felt that there is either no official complaint channel at their school, or if there is one, guidance about it is lacking. Specifically, 34.2% answered “there is no official channel,” 22.5% said “there is an official channel, but the principal’s guidance is insufficient,” and 14.7% responded “there is an official channel, but the principal does not provide any guidance.” Only 10.2% said “there is an official channel and the principal regularly provides guidance.”

When asked about cases where complaints are raised via teachers’ personal contact information rather than through an official channel, the highest proportion—34.8%—answered that “it is virtually impossible to refuse, or there is an atmosphere where teachers are expected to respond.” Another 29.9% stated “there is no protection from the school at all,” while 28.8% said “there is a system, but teachers have to refuse on their own.” The Elementary School Teachers’ Union explained that 93.5%—9 out of 10 respondents—are in effect handling complaints alone. Only 6.6% said that “teachers are strongly protected.”

In elementary schools, parent consultations are primarily conducted through “private parent communication apps” (86.4%, multiple responses allowed). The Ministry of Education has introduced the “EoDream” system to block complaints being filed via teachers’ personal contact information or social networking services (SNS). “EoDream” is a system that allows parents to make advance reservations for school life consultations and complaints, and refers particularly difficult complaints to the relevant educational authorities. However, only 0.5% of respondents said they use “EoDream.”

Respondents indicated that for the complaint response system to be truly effective, the most necessary measure is “unifying the official school channel for parent complaints and blocking access to teachers’ personal contact information” (79.0%, multiple responses allowed). This was followed by “active intervention by school administrators in handling complaints and a proactive commitment to teacher protection” (71.4%), and “direct intervention and response by the education office to malicious or unusual complaints” (38.2%).

Sukkyoon Kang, head of the Elementary School Teachers’ Union, stated, “Although the Ministry of Education has distributed manuals and introduced systems, teachers on the ground are still taking the full brunt of malicious complaints.” He added, “There is a fundamental difference between a system existing and a system actually working.” Kang further emphasized, “To break the cycle of tragedies caused by the structural contradictions at the school level, it is essential to go beyond simply creating systems and to complete an effective ‘institutional response system’ that completely separates and protects teachers from the front lines of complaints.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.