By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff reporter
From the second half of the year, teachers at public and private kindergartens will be subject to evaluation programs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Friday.
The controversial plan comes as the government is facing opposition from the nation's two largest associations of public school teachers for starting the evaluation of teachers at primary and secondary schools in March.
Including kindergarten teachers in the evaluations has been studied by the education ministry as a way of advancing the nation's education from the infant stage.
Under the new rules, kindergarten teachers will be evaluated by their principals who will be in turn be evaluated by city and provincial education superintendents.
Teachers argued that the program will ignite unnecessary competition among them and could be abused as a means to punish teachers opposed to government policies.
Teachers will be evaluated by their colleagues.
They will also be rated by parents. According to the results, teachers who score highly will be given bonuses and opportunities to go on short-term overseas study leave.
However, the government is expected to face hurdles as some education superintendents of liberal standing, who won in the June 2 local elections, said that they have concerns about the evaluation system.
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