Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu signed a memorandum of understanding Friday with the Dongbu Education Support Office and the Korea Senior Human Resources Development Institute to launch a pilot program placing retired teachers at schools as the first point of contact for parental complaints.
Under the program, called the "School Complaint Communication Officer" initiative, retired teachers with educational experience and counseling skills will be stationed at schools to receive complaints before they reach classroom teachers. The officers will listen to concerns, explain relevant procedures and mediate early-stage disputes, allowing teachers to focus on instruction rather than grievance handling.
The initiative comes as parental complaints at schools have been rising sharply. Nationwide, schools received 52,387 complaints during the 2024 academic year, up 27.1 percent from the previous year. Although schools operate dedicated complaint-response teams, teachers in practice often end up handling complaints directly, prompting calls for additional support.
The Dongbu Education Support Office proposed the project to ease those pressures, with Dongdaemun-gu and the Korea Senior Human Resources Development Institute joining as partners. The program focuses on having retired teachers — who are familiar with the school environment — facilitate communication between parents and schools from the moment a complaint is first filed, rather than stepping in only after a dispute has escalated.
The district said the model differs from Gyeonggi Province's "Teacher Rights Protection Unit," which focuses on reactive support for schools and teachers after malicious complaints or rights violations have already occurred. The new program, by contrast, stations retired teachers at schools on a standing basis to hear concerns and mediate conflicts before they grow — making it preventive rather than remedial.
The pilot will run from September through December at five elementary and middle schools in Dongdaemun-gu, with one retired teacher assigned to each school. The total project budget is 55 million won ($39,500), with Dongdaemun-gu contributing 40 million won in education expense subsidies and the Korea Senior Human Resources Development Institute covering the remaining 15 million won.
Dongdaemun-gu will handle funding and local coordination, the Dongbu Education Support Office will select participating schools and support on-site operations, and the Korea Senior Human Resources Development Institute will draw on its expertise in senior employment programs to manage personnel and program administration.
The program also aims to reconnect retired teachers' experience and expertise with the classroom while creating new employment opportunities for senior professionals. Retired educators who know the school environment well will serve as a communication channel between parents and teachers, while also gaining a meaningful role that puts their expertise to use.
Over the four-month pilot period, the district plans to assess complaint-handling processes, the impact on teachers' workloads, and satisfaction levels among schools and parents before deciding on the program's future direction.
"Rather than leaving school complaints as a burden for any one party, it is important for the community to work together to resolve them before conflicts grow," Dongdaemun-gu District Mayor Choi Dong-min said. "I hope the experience of retired teachers who know the school environment well can serve as a bridge connecting parents and schools, and help create an environment where teachers can focus more fully on educating children."
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