Last week, one high school in South Korea had a strange incident. Freshmen looked embarrassed that they could not take part in their entrance ceremony. Out of the auditorium, there was a line of students and parents who were holding pickets on their hands. On the picket, there was a sentence, written "There is no history book from thenation". They were resisting its designation as test of new textbook which is ahead of its formal introduction next year. In the rally, a student's father said that It is not right for the government to unilaterally decide what to teach in history.

     What is state-authorized history textbook. It means that it is made by nation.
Earlier this month, Education Minister Lee Joon-sik said that the government would run the trial period before officially releasing the new textbook. He also said that the government would offer subsidies to schools that wish to join. Then, why do people resist using state-authorized history textbook? According to Seoul Education Office, the reasons they insist are these. First, there are too many glorifying texts about the military regime of a former president Park's father, Park Chung-hee. There are about nine pages about the achievement of Park Chung-hee, while the whole book is containing about 297 pages. Second, in the textbook, it is said that appointmenting pro-Japanese was unavoidable. During the Japanese colonial era, our ethnic got a serious suffering. However, after the independence, Korean government engaged pro-Japanese as public officials. Lastly, there are no experts among people who wrote the book. They also said that 99% of historians and pedagogists oppose to use the textbook.
     People who resisted to use state-authorized history textbook still suggest problems by using them. In this controversy, the new textbook will be published next year

                                                                                         April 15th by Choi Jeong-won