▲ Messages shared by a deceased kindergarten teacher with an acquaintance while alive
Moving forward, "itinerant teachers" will be deployed to fill teaching vacancies when kindergarten teachers need to take sudden leave due to illness or other reasons.
The Ministry of Education announced these measures today (June 16) as part of its "Improvement Plan for Substitute Personnel Support for Kindergarten Teachers."
The policy was prompted by an incident in February, where a teacher at a private kindergarten in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, passed away after continuing to work despite suffering from a high fever due to the flu.
An inspection by the Ministry of Education revealed significant regional disparities, with some private kindergartens excluding sick leave from eligibility for substitute personnel funding or providing support only under conditional terms.
In response, the Ministry of Education plans to amend the Early Childhood Education Act by the end of this year to establish a legal basis for educational administrative agencies to employ "itinerant teachers."
Itinerant teachers will typically perform duties at their affiliated institutions, such as local offices of education or early childhood education promotion centers, and will be immediately dispatched to support classes whenever a kindergarten faces an urgent teacher vacancy.
(Photo: Provided by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.