The private Moonmyung High School located in Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do is causing a stir after it was revealed that it was the only general high school in the country to have adopted the Korea Educational Assessment Service's controversial Korean history textbook. In particular, the controversy was sparked when it was revealed that one of the authors of the textbook was a teacher at Munmyeong High School.
As a result of coverage on the 31st, Moonmyung High School, after deliberation by the school management committee, selected the version published by the Korea Institute of Educational Evaluation and Planning as the Korean History 1 and 2 textbook for the 2022 revised curriculum. The textbook has been criticized for supporting pro-Japanese figures and dictatorial regimes.
The problem is the history of Byeong-cheol Lee, a teacher at Munyeong High School who wrote Unit II of this textbook. This teacher has caused controversy in the past by publishing numerous articles defending dictatorships such as the Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee, and Chun Doo-hwan governments. In August 2022 historical research foundation seminar material, he said, “More than any other era in Korean history, the biased consciousness of broadcast planners and public historians is more noticeable in modern history,” and “After the founding of the Republic of Korea, the governments of Syngman Rhee, Chung-hee Park, and Chun Doo-hwan are almost carpet bombed.” “The majority are criticizing,” he said, asserting the left-wing bias of modern history textbooks.
Moonmyung High School was controversial in 2017 during the Park Geun-hye administration when it was designated as the only national history textbook research school in the country, and with the adoption of this textbook, it has once again become embroiled in a political controversy over history education.
Meanwhile, another school that adopted the Korea Assessment Service textbook is an alternative school in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. However, this school has been criticized for adopting textbooks without going through the school management committee, and is currently undergoing re-deliberation.
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