NHRC Issues Recommendation to Minister of Education and Human Resources Development to Amend the “Teaching Credentials Certification Order”
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found that the denying of teaching credentials—without reasonable cause—to self-taught graduates violated the right of equality, and issued a recommendation to the Minister of Education and Human Resources Development to amend provisions (specifically, article 19: clause 3) of the Teaching Credentials Certification Order related to such discriminatory treatment. The recommendation follows conclusion of a July 2002 complaint against the ministry, filed by Lim, 32, and charging that: “even though I graduated from a self-study graduate program in education, the current system makes it impossible for self-educated graduates to get certified because the system does not recognize units gained from self-study courses; this is discrimination.”
The NHRC found that: (1) the Act on Recognition of Units stipulates recognition of units accrued within a certain scope that includes self-study; (2) the self-education system in Korea is meant to give students who cannot attend college regularly the opportunity to earn an undergraduate degree, and since the government awards degrees to self-educated students who pass muster, persons who earn degrees through self-study should receive the same treatment as persons who graduate from college. In consideration of these findings, the NHRC concluded that the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development had not only violated a law that ought to take precedence, but also ran counter to the purpose and intent of the self-education system in Korea.
