Teacher groups push back on '6,087 child abusers' figure, saying it counts suspects, not convicts

Three major teacher organizations have rebuffed National Assembly data claiming that 6,087 people working in education and childcare had committed child abuse over the past five years, saying the figure should not be interpreted as the number of actual child abusers.

The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, the Korean Teachers Union and the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union issued a joint statement Friday, calling on lawmakers to clarify the meaning and limitations of statistics released Thursday by the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Han Byung-do — which stated that "3.6 people per day are arrested at places where children are entrusted" and that 6,087 education and childcare workers had been implicated in child abuse over five years.

According to the groups, the 6,087 figure does not represent people indicted by prosecutors on child abuse charges or convicted by a court. Rather, it reflects the number of people against whom police opened a child abuse investigation.

"By describing individuals at the investigation-initiation stage — those assigned a case number and placed under inquiry — as 'arrested persons,' the data leaves room for the public to perceive the figure as representing the actual scale of child abuse crimes," the groups said.

They also took issue with the grouping of four legally and professionally distinct categories — school teachers, childcare workers, hagwon instructors and kindergarten teachers — under a single "education and childcare workers" umbrella. Combining multiple occupational groups into one figure and comparing it against a single category such as parents, they argued, risks making the share attributed to education and childcare workers appear larger than it actually is.

The groups further challenged the way overall statistics on rising emotional abuse in child abuse cases had been linked to figures for education and childcare workers. To determine whether emotional abuse allegations in educational settings had genuinely increased, they said, cross-tabulated data broken down by year, occupational group and type of abuse would need to be examined separately.

The three groups also cited statistics from the period since the superintendent opinion system took effect. According to national audit data released last year by the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Baek Seung-a, there were 1,439 child abuse reports filed against teachers between Sept. 25, 2023 and Aug. 31, 2025. Of those, school superintendents submitted opinions in 1,023 cases, judging the conduct in question to constitute legitimate student guidance.

Of those 1,023 cases, 166 — or 16.2 percent — were closed before police opened an investigation. The remaining 857 proceeded to investigation. Of those, only 17 cases, or 1.7 percent, resulted in indictment. Some 440 cases, or 43 percent, ended without indictment, 34 cases, or 3.3 percent, were handled as child protection cases, and 349 were still being processed at the time.

"There is no disagreement on the need to protect children who have suffered abuse," the groups said. "However, these figures show that people under investigation should not be treated as actual perpetrators of child abuse."

They added that while children must be given strong protection, legitimate educational activities should not be misidentified as child abuse or result in punishment. The groups called for reforms to relevant laws and systems, including the Child Welfare Act and the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes.