Secondary school history textbooks, which will be used in schools starting next year, will emphasize the l..

The results of the new textbook for middle school history and high school Korean history, which will be used next year, were released on the 30th. One of them, a textbook of the Korea Educational Testing Service, was published "Seven people who influenced our history after the liberation," of which former President Rhee Syng-man is at the forefront. Yonhap News Agency — The results of the new textbook for middle school history and high school Korean history, which will be used next year, were released on the 30th. One of them, a textbook of the Korea Educational Testing Service, published “Seven People Who Influenced Our History After Liberation,” spearheaded by former President Rhee Syng-man. Yonhap News Agency

History textbooks for high schools and colleges to be used in schools starting next year will emphasize the legitimacy of the South Korean government and firmly specify North Korea’s provocations. According to the announcement of the Ministry of Education on the 30th on the “Decision to Accept the 2024 Textbook Examination”, △ Dong-A Publishing △ Emergency Education △ Jihaksa △ Liber School △ Haemae-du △ Korea Institute of Academic Evaluation △ Genius Textbook △ CIMAS △ Future En, etc. passed the examination of Korean history Ⅰ and Ⅱ for high schools by the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation.

All nine Korean high school history textbooks have adopted the term “liberal democracy” instead of “democracy.” In accordance with the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s 2022 curriculum amendment, the Yoon government decided to specify the phrase “liberal democracy” to firmly specify the legitimacy of the establishment of the South Korean government as opposed to the North Korean regime. In late 2022, the Ministry of Education added “liberal democracy” to the performance standard of the “Korea Development” unit of Korean high school history, stating that it “explores the process of establishing the Korean government based on liberal democracy.”

The description of “democracy” has been used differently in school textbooks depending on the regime. The 2007 revised curriculum drafted by the Roh Moo Hyun government used only “democracy,” and the 2011 and 2015 revised curriculum drafted by the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments used only “liberal democracy.” The Yoon Suk Yeol government decided to use “liberal democracy” when describing the values the state pursues with regard to the establishment of the Korean government and “democracy” in the democratization movement against the dictatorship.

At the time, Vice Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon explained: “Since ‘democracy’ and ‘liberal democracy’ are not opposite concepts, the correct term was described based on the context of the curriculum.”

School textbooks that passed the exam wrote “establishing the government of the Republic of Korea” instead of “establishing the Republic of Korea.” As for North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was described as establishing a “regime” instead of a “state,” and the Republic of Korea was used as the only legitimate government on the Korean Peninsula to ensure legitimacy. It also emphasized North Korea’s provocations. North Korea clearly wrote that it is the main agent of North Korea’s provocations, such as the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the Cheonan Incident. Middle school textbooks from the Korea Institute of Education and Evaluation described former President Syngman Rhee as the first person to exert influence after the liberation, and marked the Syngman Rhee government as a “long-term government,” unlike other textbooks that described it as a “dictatorship.”

In the case of high school history I and II, a total of seven publishers passed the examination of the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation, including △ Jihaksa △ Future △ Liber School △ Emergency Education △ Hae-Edu △ Genius Textbook △ Dong-A Publishing. Every time a new history textbook is written due to a change in the curriculum, sharp discussions are repeated in conservative and progressive academia about the method and expression of the description, and this time there will be a gap between textbooks related to former President Rhee Syng-man and the Korean War. During the Park Geun Hye administration, attempts to nationalize history textbooks were controversial, and leftist labels were often attached to textbooks, which were abolished by the Moon Jae In administration and changed to an examination system.

In the case of textbooks from the Korea Educational Testing Service, which passed the test for the first time this time, it is judged that the conservative color is strong. The textbook excluded direct expressions of sexual exploitation or human rights violations, such as sexual slavery, and expressed the Japanese military Japanese military sexual slavery in a way that “they dragged young women to live horrible lives”, and asked how to evaluate poet Seo Jeong-ju, who is considered a pro-Japanese group, with a topic exploration titled “A View of Pro-Japanese Intellectuals.”

The left wing, including the opposition party, is protesting this. Hwang Jung-ah, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Korea, said: “The President of the Republic of Korea has denied the spirit of the independence movement on the Gyeongsul National Day, which should commemorate our painful history, and today even future generations are trying to bury the New Right,” and warned: “The Democratic Party will find the merchants who sell the Republic of Korea and hold them accountable.” Next year, the new curriculum will be implemented in grades 3 through 4 of elementary school, 1st year of junior high school and 1st year of high school, and the textbook will be changed. The new textbooks will be displayed in frontline schools from the 2nd of next month and will be used in schools from 2025. However, the Minister of Education may order the publisher to make corrections if necessary, and the Ministry of Education may set a new ordering period if there are special circumstances including corrections.

(Reporter Lee Yong-ik / Reporter Koo Jung-geun)