80% of teachers witness far-right hate speech in schools, union survey finds

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union has raised alarm over what it calls a serious rise in far-right hate speech among students.

According to a survey the union released Tuesday, 89.8 percent of respondents said the use of far-right hate expressions in schools and classrooms was serious — 61 percent said "very serious" and 28.8 percent said "serious."

The survey polled 177 elementary, middle and high school teachers nationwide from Dec. 24, 2024, to Jan. 6 this year.

When asked whether they had witnessed students using far-right hate expressions at school, 80.2 percent said they had — 48 percent "very often" and 32.2 percent "often."

Some 71.8 percent of respondents said they felt the number of students using such expressions had increased since the Dec. 3, 2024, insurrection attempt — 42.4 percent "strongly agreed" and 29.4 percent "agreed."

Asked to identify specific examples of far-right hate speech used by students, with multiple responses allowed, the most common category was derogatory remarks about current and former presidents, cited by 50.4 percent. That was followed by anti-China and political hate speech at 37.9 percent, gender and misogynistic expressions at 20 percent, distortion of political history at 15 percent, hate speech targeting minorities at 12 percent, and regional slurs at 3.6 percent.

When asked how often they responded to such hate expressions, 26.6 percent of teachers said they always intervened and 28.2 percent said they usually did.

Among those who did respond, the most common approach — with multiple answers allowed — was to immediately stop the behavior and issue a warning, cited by 75.7 percent. That was followed by individual counseling or guidance for the student involved at 37.9 percent, and conducting a lesson on far-right hate speech at 20.3 percent.

Some 75.2 percent of teachers said they found it difficult to respond directly when such incidents occurred — 37.9 percent said it was "difficult" and 37.3 percent "very difficult." The most commonly cited reason, at 59.9 percent, was that meaningful action was not practically possible. Other reasons included not knowing how to respond effectively (44.6 percent), feeling obligated to remain neutral as a teacher (43.5 percent), fear of complaints or retaliation (41.8 percent), and not wanting to disrupt the flow of a lesson (38.4 percent).

In response to the survey findings, the union said it would develop and distribute response manuals for both teachers and parents, and called for stronger education aimed at fundamentally changing awareness around far-right hate speech. It also said teachers should be given institutional protections that allow them to teach with conviction.