International teachers' union criticizes Korea for the firing of 12 KTEWU teachers.

From the Korea Herald:

Chief of the world's largest federation of teachers' organizations said yesterday that the recent dismissal of teachers in Korea who allowed students to skip standardized tests was outrageous.

"We respect the right of governments to develop and pursue education reform plans, but we cannot accept teachers' organizations not being consulted on those plans, let alone their members being fired for exercising their professional freedom," Fred Van Leeuwen, general secretary of the Education International, told reporters here.

"It is impossible for any government to achieve their educational goals while treating their teaching profession the way the Korean government does - restricting their professional freedoms, denying their collective bargaining rights, thwarting social dialogue, dismissing and persecuting educators."

Twelve members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union were sacked late last year for giving students a choice not to take the nationwide standardized tests.

"By dismissing the teachers, the South Korean government has seriously curtailed the professional freedom of teachers, which is guaranteed by the International Labor Organization and UNESCO's recommendation," Leeuwen said.

As a way to subvert standardized exams they felt were uncalled-for, some teachers in the union allowed their students to miss school the day of the exam or to cheat on the test. Protests continue outside the schools, as they did in December, with unionized teachers trying to get to the kids and get them involved in the demonstrations.

Interestingly, last month came word that a rural county in Jeollabuk-do posted some of the best standardized test scores in the nation. A few days later, it turned out that the education office kept lower-performing students away and falsified records.

A provincial education office intentionally omitted 15 underachievers from a report in a desperate attempt to rank its region's students as top-league in the state-run standardized tests held last October.

The manipulation of test scores took place at the Imshil Education Office, in North Jeolla Province and resulted in the region being rated as one of the top-performing offices.

The county office concocted the scores ahead of the government's plan to evaluate schoolmasters and teachers from 2011.

Obviously the tests results are invalid, and students had to take the tests again this month. The union may not have disrupted the exams last year, but the tests have been rendered meaningless and the union's ultimate goal achieved. From that same article:

Progressive teachers' groups lost no time in calling for scrapping the system. ``The disclosure of the academic records will only rank schools and spawn irregularities and corruption at schools to raise the test scores,'' said the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union in its statement.

Well they were certainly quick on the scene. *cough* Perhaps I'm just too old to appreciate the irony of protesting exams that will "spawn irregularities and corruption at schools to raise the test scores" by having students cheat or take field trips in lieu of exams in order to throw off the results.