Ministry denies omission of Gwangju from history books was political

A man re-enacts a moment in the May 18 Gwangju Uprising at a special anniversary event dedicated to the movement on May 17, 2018. [YONHAP]

The Education Ministry refuted an allegation that it deliberately eliminated descriptions of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising in new history textbooks for public elementary, middle and high schools.

“The standards for changing textbook content are still in the process of being developed,” Oh Seung-geol, head of the Responsible Public Education Policy Bureau of the ministry, told the press on Wednesday. “We have yet to review the contents compiled, and we will make sure that elements [such as the May 18 movement] are included.”

The ministry has been revising the nation’s public education system since April 2021, including changes to curriculums that will go into effect in elementary schools this year and in middle and high schools in 2024.

New history textbooks were disclosed by the ministry last month. The May 18 movement was not mentioned once in any.

Some critics cried politics, saying the conservative government was trying to erase the Gwangju Uprising.

In a 10-day uprising against the Chun Doo Hwan leadership from May 18, 1980, students from Chonnam National University staged a protest calling for democracy. The following day, Chun dispatched special forces to Gwangju, who opened fire on protesters to crush the demonstration.

Remembered as one of the worst massacres in modern Korean history, the event has also been celebrated as a fuse for the democracy movement. Nationwide agitations for democracy eventually ended years of dictatorship and military government.

Gwangju is holy ground for Korea's liberals, and the area is a liberal stronghold at election-time. Conservative parties with ties to the dictatorships sometimes try to downplay its importance, and at other times curry favor with its voters, visiting for photo-ops and stressing their commitment to national unity.

The ministry on Wednesday denied the charge that the omission was a conservative scheme.

“We have to remember that the project to improve public education began in the time of the previous [liberal] administration,” said Jang Hong-jae, another senior-ranking official of the ministry. “The May 18 Movement was also missing in the draft content for history textbooks that they put together at the time.

Jang added that the omission was due to an attempt by the ministry to slim down textbooks.

The public education revamp plan has slashed class hours from a total of 2,890 hours during three years of high school to 2,720 hours, and is also focusing on slimming down the study materials.

Also omitted in the history textbooks was the Jeju April 3 Uprising, an uprising on Jeju Island by residents from 1948 to 1949 to oppose the division of Korea. The Syngman Rhee government ordered a crackdown and as many as 30,000 protestors were killed.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]