Education ministry stiffens punishment of anti-govt teachersi

SEOUL, July 31 (Yonhap) -- The education ministry on Friday stiffened its
punishment of schoolteachers reprimanded for participating in an anti-government
campaign, including the chief of the teachers' union who is now barred from
returning to his job for five years.

Over 28,000 teachers with the left-leaning Korean Teachers and Education Workers
Union (KTU) released a statement on July 19 denouncing conservative President Lee
Myung-bak's market-oriented educational policy. Their protest intensified after
colleagues were punished for participating in an earlier anti-government campaign
in June endorsed by some 17,000 KTU members. The union claims 80,000 members
nationwide.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced early this month it
would dismiss or suspend 88 teachers. Friday's announcement said it would
penalize 89 teachers with heavier punishments than those previously meted out.
KTU President Jeong Jin-hoo will be banned from returning to school for five
years and will have his pension reduced, the ministry said. Twenty-one other
senior KTU leaders will be banned for three years, it said.
"The issuance of the statement against the government by the schoolteachers
violates the law prohibiting public workers from engaging in political
activities," the ministry said. "We concluded that it is necessary to take
punitive actions against them according to the law and principle."
The teachers' movement was part of a series of anti-government campaigns by led
by academic and civic groups largely sparked by the May 23 suicide of former
President Roh Moo-hyun. Roh and his family had been under a prosecution-led
investigation into allegations of graft that supporters say was politically
motivated.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)