The reality of special education revealed by the death of a teacher who is about to get married

[Anchor]
At the end of last month, a special elementary school teacher who complained of hard work passed away on his own.

Fellow teachers and parents have appealed for measures to solve overcrowded class problems and reduce the burden on teachers.

Reporter Kim Yi-young's report.

[Reporter]
Kim Tae-jung, a 10-year special teacher at an elementary school in Seoul, had a hard time taking on more students than she did the year before last.

According to the Special Education Act, the number of students per class is six, but at that time, it was in charge of seven people and had difficulty teaching.

It was burdensome because I had to do the administrative work of other disabled children taking classes in general classes.

[Kim Tae-jung / Special teacher for 10 years: If the number of students increases by one, the number of students in the general class will increase by 5 from the general class.]

This is not the only case of suffering from special class problems that exceed the capacity.

Last month, a four-year special teacher who is about to get married in Incheon passed away on his own.

The deceased, who was in charge of eight students, including children with severe disabilities, complained of burden several times during his lifetime.

It is reported that he was struggling with 29 hours of classes a week, exceeding the average weekly class hours of elementary school teachers, which are 20 to 22 hours, and administrative tasks such as managing support personnel.

[Special teacher with 18 years of experience: The number of applicants is limited. And managing and operating the support staff is also one of the special teacher tasks.]

With the Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education setting up a fact-finding committee on the death case and conducting a special audit, parents of disabled children have also appealed for countermeasures in the wake of this incident.

I urged the government to increase the number of special teachers and impose sanctions on them if they do not comply with the number of class members stipulated in the law.

[Kim Yoon-kyung / Chairman of Incheon Parents' Solidarity for Disabled Persons: There is a pity that why he did not apply before he died when he was able to apply for a teacher.... I think that the educational environment and the satisfaction (of teachers) are directly approaching our children.]

2022 8.8%, 2023 9.9%, 2024 10.1%

Among the special classes nationwide, the proportion of overcrowded classes exceeding the quota has been steadily increasing over the past three years.

Attention is focusing on whether the poor special education conditions, which have been consistently pointed out since the death of a young teacher, can be improved.

I'm YTN's Kim Lee Young.

Reporter for shooting
: Park Jinwoo
Design: Lee Wonhee