There were many child abuse cases that happened recently. Everyone was shocked about the news and all the parents of children worried a lot about the day care center which their children go to. However, day care teachers who already worked in poor work environments struggled harder because of parents’ worries. After the child abuse cases in day care centers, the government planned many policies to prevent it. CBT Reporter researched about it. -Ed.

■ In the view of day care teachers
  Last January 8th, Korea was noisy because of the abuse case in the Incheon Songdo day care center. A day care teacher hit a four-year-old girl because she didn’t eat Kimchi. At that moment, other children were sitting on their knees in the corner of the room. By this, we can figure out that the abuse wasn’t the first time. After the case, many other abuse cases that happened in day care centers emerged. A day care center in Daegu was reported for stabbing children’s bodies, and a day care center in Ansan was reported for abusing children. In fact, during 4 years, abuse cases from day care centers increased 27 times. There were 3 cases in 2010, 25 cases in 2012 and 81 cases in 2013. Due to continuous abuse cases of day care centers, lots of parents are nervous, and the government is planning countermeasures.
  A lot of people were angry with continuous abuse cases in day care centers. However, among those people, teachers who work in day care centers expressed anger the most. Song Da-hyun, who works in one of Cheongju day care centers, said, “It feels really bad to hear child abuse cases when we work hard in a poor working environment. All too soon, teachers in day care centers have become criminals who can abuse children anytime.” In fact, day care teachers have high unemployment rates because of the poor work environment. Day care teachers work for 12 hours a day without any resting time. Because of a shortage of manpower, it’s hard to be on sick leave even though they are in bad health. If teachers take their eyes off the children, it can lead to accidents, so it’s hard to have a meal. Except for taking care of children, teachers also have to do paperwork. Because teachers have to work late or on weekends if they don’t finish their paperwork during their working hours, they don’t have their free time even though children are taking naps. Monthly pay is 1,100,000 won to 1,170,000 won on average. Day care teaching is a job which requires love, but realistically, the working environment is so poor, so the average unemployment rate of a day care teacher is about 40%.
  Day care teachers have become a second victim of the abuse cases which happened in day care centers. At once, teachers became provisional child abuse assaulters. Parents started to ask about the source of teachers’ licenses after they found out licenses can be obtained online. Because of nervous parents, teachers became incompetent teachers just by where they graduated from. There are many day care teachers who quit after the abuse case in the Incheon day care center. Parents are moving their children from local day care centers to expensive English kindergartens or big day care centers. Because of it, the situation of small day care centers located in town is getting worse and worse.

 

■ Policies to prevent the child abuse
  The government is preparing the policies to prevent child abuse in day care centers. One is the addition of a Day Care Teacher National Examination. The government is going to start selecting day care teachers by using a national exam, and in a long term policy, only students who major in related departments can take the test. Until now, just with cyber university lectures people could obtain a day care teacher’s license. There is a problem that it is hard to prevent cheating on online tests. The government is still going to maintain the way to take grades through online lectures, but the students will also have to take human nature training. If people don’t take the training, they can’t even apply for the national exam. Also, to supply more manpower, assistant teachers will be increased. Moreover, to activate the reports about child abuse, a reward of reporting was raised from a maximum of 10,000,000 won to 20,000,000 won. When child abuse is discovered, the name of the criminal and his/her day care center will be open to the public. Until now, each local government decided by election, but from now on, the names will be open right away. The most controversial policy is installing CCTVs in day care centers. From now on, without CCTVs, day care centers cannot start their work. CCTVs are for parents, so if they are really suspicious about child abuse, they can look for it. However, to prevent infringement on the human rights of teachers, viewing CCTVs in real time is unavailable.
 

  The government brought out diverse policies, but there are some worries about negative effects. The most sensitive thing was the CCTV installation. However, by not accepting real time viewing of CCTVs, it settled a controversy. About releasing the name of criminals and day care centers, there is a worry about making other victims. If actions for education look like child abuse and a teacher becomes a criminal, then the teacher and day care center can get enormous damage. Therefore, an exact concept about child abuse is needed. Diverse policies are coming out, but to make specific ones, more time is needed. Making efficient and good policies is more important than making policies quickly because it’s a hot issue now.

 

By Seo Yeo-ryung
yr34@cbnu.ac.kr