South Korean Teachers Top OECD in Career Regret Due to Stress

South Korean Teachers Top OECD in Career Regret Due to Stress
56.9% cite parental complaints; student verbal violence stress double OECD average

By Kim Min-ki,
Oh Ju-bi
Published 2025.10.11. 00:54
Updated 2025.10.11. 09:44
Elementary school teacher A received a recent diagnosis of depression. The incident began when A admonished a student who had cursed during class and suddenly ran out of the classroom in the first semester. The parents protested, saying, “Why are you talking to our child like that?” and “We will report you for child abuse.” As complaints continued, A lost interest in work and became anxious, leading to a hospital visit where A was diagnosed with depression. A said, “I don’t know if I can properly continue my teaching career in the future.”

It has been found that the stress South Korean teachers experience due to parental complaints and students’ verbal violence is among the highest globally. The proportion of teachers who regret becoming teachers ranked first among OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, countries.

According to the results of the ‘International Comparative Study on Teachers and Teaching Environments (TALIS) 2024’ released by the OECD on the 7th, 56.9% of South Korean teachers responded that ‘responding to parental complaints’ is a major stress factor. This ranked second among surveyed countries, following Portugal (60.6%). It was 15.3 percentage points higher than the OECD average (41.6%) and a 16.5 percentage point increase from the 2018 survey (40.4%).

The OECD has been conducting the TALIS survey every five to six years since 2008, broadly investigating the working environments of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school teachers in member countries. This survey involved 120,000 middle school teachers and 11,000 principals from 54 countries (including 22 non-member countries). South Korea participated with 3,477 teachers and 173 principals.

South Korean teachers exhibited a characteristic of experiencing significant stress in areas outside the core of their duties, such as ‘teaching.’ For instance, 30.7% of teachers identified ‘student threats and verbal violence’ as a stress factor, double the OECD average (17.6%). This ranked fourth among all surveyed countries. Conversely, teachers who experienced education-related stress, such as ‘having to prepare too much for classes’ (18.1%), were below the OECD average. South Korean teachers spent an average of 8 hours per week on administrative tasks, 3.3 hours more than the OECD average (4.7 hours), ranking third overall.

In actual school settings, there are numerous teachers who have been threatened by students. Middle school teacher B in Gyeongbuk also faced severe humiliation after pointing out a student who was applying makeup during class. The student cursed at the back of B’s head and even told a friend, “I want to kill Teacher B.” Although a committee to protect teaching authority was convened, the student only received a ‘10-day suspension’ measure.

76.9% of South Korean teachers believed that teaching is a profession with more advantages than disadvantages, higher than the OECD average (73.9%). However, the proportion of teachers who regretted becoming teachers was 21%, ranking first among surveyed countries. While 35.2% of teachers believed that the teaching profession is socially recognized, higher than the OECD average (21.7%), this figure plummeted by 32 percentage points compared to six years ago.

Teachers unanimously state, “Nothing has changed since the Seo-i Elementary School incident.” Following the controversy over the 2023 Seo-i Elementary School teacher’s death, the Ministry of Education announced that schools would handle all complaints. However, this system does not function well in reality. A middle school teacher in Gyeongnam said, “Although the complaint response team initially receives calls, in most cases, the resolution is left to the homeroom teacher who is familiar with the details.”

Teachers’ organizations are demanding a significant reduction in complaints and administrative tasks to allow teachers to focus on teaching. Jang Seung-hyeok, a spokesperson for the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations, stated, “There is a need for measures to strongly punish even a single ‘malicious complaint’ as a violation of teaching authority.”

South Korean Teachers Top OECD in Career Regret Due to Stress https://share.google/mgFOGd3gw4CMwNID1