Korean Job Discussion Forums

[maingman]

Local education authorities recently approved the first school textbooks detailing the 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education said yesterday the two textbooks would be distributed to four schools in the city in March.

They are devoted to the May 1980 military crackdown of armed civilian protests against coup leaders. The incident led to the death of at least 200 people.

The two military leaders, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, became presidents later.

The textbooks were written by 11 teachers in a three-year project led by a private foundation based in the city commemorating the popular uprising.

The books underwent three rounds of screening before approval and are currently being printed.

The textbooks - a 122-page book for elementary schools and a 173-page one for middle and high schools - will initially be used in extra curricular classes at the four schools next year. More schools and other regions are expected to adopt the texts later, officials said.

The textbooks look at its development, historical background, significance and influence on the pro-democracy movement in Asia and the rest of the world, they said.

By Cho Ji-hyun

([email protected])

[SpuriousGeorge]

That's a pretty big step forward! I'm glad to see that something like this can be swept back out from under the rug.