[Provided by Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education]
[Provided by Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education]

Gyeonggi Province Education Superintendent Ahn Min-seok announced Sunday that he will establish a Teacher Rights Protection Unit directly under his office and introduce a dedicated teacher rights protection officer system — a first in the country — to shield teachers from rights violations and malicious complaints. The initiative appears to have drawn inspiration from the Netflix series "Cham Gyoyuk" ("True Education").

The Teacher Rights Protection Unit will be headed directly by the superintendent and will serve as the command body for serious teacher rights violations and education activity protection policy.

Critics had long noted that responses to teacher rights violations, indiscriminate child abuse reports and malicious complaints were scattered across multiple departments, forcing affected teachers to navigate a complex process on their own.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education plans to consolidate those fragmented functions — investigation, legal support, counseling and recovery — under the new unit, building a response system in which the education office takes responsibility from the moment an incident occurs through to its resolution and the teacher's recovery.

The centerpiece of the initiative is the teacher rights protection officer, a role being introduced for the first time nationwide. When a rights violation occurs, the officer will be paired one-on-one with the affected teacher and will take charge of the entire process — from initial counseling and on-site response to fact-finding, legal advice, psychological support and follow-up care.

Where existing teacher rights support was limited to assistance divided by field and department, the new system stands apart in that a single dedicated officer takes responsibility for a case from start to finish — a hands-on, one-stop response model unlike anything seen elsewhere in the country.

The education office plans to give officers real authority to coordinate legal, administrative, counseling and recovery support across departmental lines without being blocked by bureaucratic barriers.

Notably, teacher rights protection officers will be recruited through an open public application process targeting Gyeonggi Province residents.

Superintendent Ahn said the teacher rights protection officer system, being introduced for the first time in the country, is "a new model for protecting teacher rights in which the education office takes responsibility from the outset to the end of a case, so that teachers do not have to bear the burden of rights violations and malicious complaints alone."

Ahn said he would "put an end to the era in which teachers bore the weight of rights violations alone," adding that he would personally lead the Teacher Rights Protection Unit while ensuring that protection officers stand by teachers in the field.


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