Until 2009, the government was in charge of publishing history textbooks.
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On Monday, the government announced its plan to reintroduce state history textbooks for secondary school students to address what it calls the predominantly left-leaning contents in current books.
“The government has decided to make new textbooks, called The Correct Textbook of History, with a view to imparting fact-based, well-balanced knowledge of modern history that cherishes constitutional values”, Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea and Kim Jung-bae, President of the state-run National Institute of Korean History said at a press briefing on October 12. One is the government’s attempt to publish a single government-authorized history textbook, scrapping the current system of allowing several government authorized textbooks to be published.
The New York Times” editorial board a year ago ran an editorial titled “Politicians and Textbooks, ‘ which pointed out “Both Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea are pushing to have high school history textbooks in their countries rewritten to reflect their political views”.
“I suggest a parliamentary investigation into the qualification system for history textbooks to find out the problems and discuss how to change the system”, Lee said. However, opposition to state-issued textbooks has been growing stronger recently, creating the real possibility that state-issued textbooks might only exacerbate the split in public opinion. 85% of textbooks that were submitted for the 2015 revised curriculum were approved.
The government-backed National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) will soon start recruiting a team of up to 40 writers for the job. She said if efforts are not made to instill a solid view of Korean history and a sense of pride, South Korea could be dominated by another country, culturally and historically.
“It was an inevitable choice for the government to correct historical factual errors and to end social controversies derived from ideological bias”, Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying at a news conference on Monday.
The Ministry of Education said on Sunday that it will hold a briefing session today at the Sejong Government Complex for the announcement.
Park stressed that a correct recognition of history is pivotal in preparing for unification.
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The stern warning by the ministry is coupled with an unconfirmed claim by ruling Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung that 90 percent of Korean historians are leftists. “Despite opposition from the academy, parents, and civic groups, Hwang pushed through the plan for the state to issue Korean history textbooks, provoking conflict and division in Korean society”. After 24 hours pass following the bill’s presentation to the general meeting of the National Assembly, it will be automatically scrapped unless it is adopted within 72 hours.
