Teacher Retirement Age May Rise

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Teacher Retirement Age May Rise

An amendment bill proposing to change the retirement age for teachers from 62 to 63 passed the National Assembly's Education Committee on Wednesday.

The amendment to the Public Officials for Education Act is likely to pass the main session as well as the the main opposition Grand National Party, which supports the bill, holds 136 seats, just one seat shy of a majority in the 273-seat National Assembly. The minor opposition United Liberal Democrats holds 15 seats.

If President Kim Dae-jung does not veto the revision bill, the new retirement age will take effect next February, immediately affecting 729 senior teachers.

The revised draft was endorsed by Representative Cho Boo-young of the United Liberal Democrats at the committee meeting, and was seconded by eight Grand Nationals. Seven Millennium Democrats on the committee left without voting.

The ruling party, which in 1999 worked to change the retirement age from 65 to 62, opposes making another change.

"Changing the retirement age again after just two years would bring about great confusion in the education sector and the majority of the public opposes the change," said Representative Lee Jae-joung of the Millennium Democratic Party.

The opposition had a different take. "The decision in 1999 was made for political reasons without input from or reflecting the interests of the teachers," said Representative Kim Jung-sook of the Grand National Party.

"Raising the retirement age is inevitable to meet the demand for teachers and to boost their morale," Ms. Kim added.

The vote raised criticism that the opposition parties are simply taking advantage of their superior numbers on the floor to keep their constituencies satisfied before the two major elections scheduled for next year. Local elections are set to take place in June and the presidential election in December.

The Grand National Party was specifically criticized for wanting to push up the retirement age for teachers because of the large number and influence of the roughly 350,000 teachers in the nation.

All three of the nation's teachers' groups, the Korean Teacher's and Educational Worker's Union, the Korean Union of Teaching and Education Workers, along with the Federation of Korean Teacher's Associations, have recently been clamoring for a greater role in politics as an interest group and permission to participate in union activities during school hours.



by Kim Chong-hyuk

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