NHRC Issues Recommendation to Minister of Education and Human Resources Development (MOE) to Amend the「Public School Teacher Appointment Regulation」
Regarding a May 2003 petition filed by petitioner Lee (41) charging that「Restricting the age for taking the civil service exam for appointing teachers violates the right of equality on an age basis,」 the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found that, article 11: clause 2 of the Public School Teacher Appointment Regulation—which restricts the age of exam-takers for the public school teachers’ civil service exam to the age of 40 and below—violates the right of equality without due cause, and issued a recommendation to the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development (MOE) to amend the regulation.
Article 11: clause 2 of the regulation stipulates that persons applying to take the teachers’ civil service exam must be age 40 or under in the year for which they are planning to take the exam. The clause allows for age limit extensions in cases when there is a teacher shortage and when the teacher has specialized professional experience or another special reason.
In the course of the NHRC investigation, the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development (MOE) defended the age limit, asserting: (1) the age limit was set considering the type of physical condition and ability to master work tasks for the smooth carrying-out of teaching duties; (2) such an age limit is necessary for the smooth functioning of the teacher rotation system; and (3) there was a need to secure teachers who decide at an early age to commit themselves to teaching and dedicate themselves to teaching; (4) a teacher’s ability builds up over time and is fostered through years of experience, in particular, one should keep in mind that teachers must accumulate considerable experience before they can build student-teacher relations; (5) if there were no age restriction, persons wanting to become public school teachers would study for the civil service exam and take it year after year until they received a teaching placement and this would be an inefficient development and use of state resources; (6) there is also an age limit for persons taking the civil service exam to become general government employees and when one considers that the retirement age of civil servants is 62, or when one considers that there is an extension for special cases, this provision does not violate the right of equality.
The NHRC assessment differed: (1) one cannot suppose that just because a person is age 40 or below they are fit the physical conditions to carry out the job smoothly; (2) a teacher's ability does not stem from being of a youthful age but rather, the teacher should have teaching ability before he or she is appointed to teach at a public school and that ability comes from the process of acquiring teaching credentials and the civil service exam; (3) there lacked sufficient reason to suppose that the smooth functioning of the teacher rotation system required the rigid exclusion of all persons above a certain age.
Moreover, teachers carry the responsibility for educating our youth, a special job requiring expertise; thus, they differ from general civil servants and other government employees. The NHRC also points out that only persons who have already received their teaching credentials can take the teachers’ civil servant exam; thus, the process of cultivating teachers and appointing them is also different [only successful exam-takers are appointed to an actual teaching position at a public school regardless of having teaching credentials]. A person who is over 40 when they acquire their teaching credentials has a long period of time before them to work as a teacher until retirement age, and if during that time period, they have the will and ability to teach, then it is proper to give them the opportunity to take the exam. Although article 11: clause 2 of the Public School Teacher Appointment Regulation does stipulate that the age restriction can be extended when there is a teacher shortage, this has only been applied for primary school teachers in certain rural areas, and in reality, the age limit is 40. Last, there is no age restriction for teachers in the USA, the UK and other countries. After comprehensive consideration of these factors, the NHRC found that article 11: clause 2 of the Public School Teacher Appointment Regulation violates the right to equality on the basis of age, and issued a recommendation to the MOE to amend the regulation. –End.
