According to the report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Education on Monday, 1,973 full-time teachers took sick leave between April 2023 and April 2024. More than half of them were teachers from primary schools, with 412 from middle schools and 289 from high schools.
Despite the number of those taking sick leave steadily rising in recent years, specific reasons for their absences are not readily available, making it difficult to determine whether they are due to physical or mental illness.
But more and more teachers are complaining about their work-related stress, with cases surging from 7,936 in 2020 to 34,066 in 2023. The number of teachers undergoing mental treatment has seen a five-fold increase, rising from 1,498 to 7,502 during the same period.
The increasing number of such cases raises concerns after last week's tragic incident in Daejeon, where a teacher who had suffered from depression lured an 8-year-old girl and stabbed her to death.
The ministry plans to require teachers who take sick leave twice or more to undergo a psychiatric screening before returning to work. Safety measures for students will also be strengthened through enhanced facility inspections and the deployment of additional security personnel.
But some fear that these measures may discourage teachers with depression from seeking help.
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