One year after the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, improper practice at school such as giving money envelope to teachers disappeared

September 22, 2017

Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education

The Republic of Korea

One year after the enforcement of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) had conducted a survey of school parents and teachers and asked them how they saw the Act for nine days from August 31(Tue) to September 8 (Fri) and announced the result on August 22th.

The survey was designed to assess achievements of SMOE’s various integrity policies taken and diagnose changes at school after the enforcement of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, thereby taking measures for a new integrity culture in the education sector. To that end, the survey asked people in the education sector on how much they believe the Act reduced improper solicitation money envelope to teachers. The on-line survey was participated by 36,947 school parents and 18,101 teachers via the SMOE website. To secure fairness of the survey, the SMOE received advice from the ACRC and reflect it when developing questionaries

The survey results are as follows:

[Enforcement of the Act] 95% of the school parents(35,259) said they were in favor of the enforcement of the Act

[Stable implementation of the Act] 87% of school parents(32,231) and 95% of teachers(17,092) answered that the Act took roots in Korean society.

[Positive change] 95% of school parents(35,188) and 92% of teachers(16,572) responded that the law brought positive changes to schools

[improper solicitation practice] 76% of school parents(28,030) and 82% of teachers(14,686) said that the Act ended the customary practice of improper solicitation

[Money-giving practice] 83% of school parents(30,688) and 85% of teachers(15,488) said the Act ended the customary practice of giving monetary gifts including money envelopes to teachers

[Understanding of the Act] 73% of school parents(26,829) and 89% of teachers(16,218) said they were well informed of the details of the Act

[SMOE’s efforts] 93% of teachers(16,941) said that the SMOE had made efforts for the stable implementation of the Act

The survey respondents said that for the successful establishment of the Act, more clarity is needed in the interpretation of the Act; a small token of appreciation to teachers on Teacher’s Day should be allowed; parents, when visiting a teacher for counselling, should be allowed to have a cup of coffee with the teacher; and promotional effort and education on the Act should be continuously made .

For the past year, the SMOE conducted various activities for an integrity culture to take roots, such as publication and distribution of Improper Solicitation and Graft Act Manuel; Improper solicitation and graft officer workshops; development of Improper Solicitation and Graf Act promotional contents and promotional activities for the Act’s early establishment; five major integrity education campaigns; and integrity campaign content contest.

One of the tangible outcomes is that there was no single report of money envelope and illegal donation after the Act. There were 13 reports of the violation of the Act, and handling 11 of them were completed because they were self reported by public officials. One was about improper solicitation detected by the Education Support Office and requested for investigation. Another was improper solicitation violation reported by a third party and requested for administrative fines.

The SMOE thinks that the survey result indicates that the enforcement of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act has contributed to nurturing an integrity culture. The SMOE will remove shortcomings of policies it pursues and take measures for the stable establishment of integrity culture

The SMOE superintendent stated that the survey results proved that even though there was some confusion and controversy over the law in the early stage of its enforcement, the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act has brought about positive changes to the education sector, removing improper solicitation practice at school. He said this is attributable to strong support from parents who want to make a clean environment for their child. He also said that the SMOE will further its efforts to realize more clean education environment in Seoul, reflecting people in the education’s opinion shown in the survey.