Severity of Historical Distortion Games... Middle School Textbooks Only 6 Pages on 'Democratization Process'
Momentum Grows for Increasing Proportion of Modern and Contemporary History in Middle School Textbooks... Attention on Whether the National Education Commission Will Decide on the 16th
(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Seong-min = The Baejae High School baseball team, which was banned from playing for six months after shouting offensive slogans disparaging the May 18 Democratization Movement during a game against Gwangju Jeil High School (Gwangju Ilgo), decided to apply for a retrial on the 8th. The photo shows Baejae High School in Gangdong-gu, Seoul on July 8, 2026. ksm7976@yna.co.kr
In the wake of the Baejae High School baseball team's 'Starbucks cheer' scandal, which brought the severity of 'historical distortion and hate games' to the surface, arguments for significantly increasing the amount of modern and contemporary history in middle school history classes are gaining traction.
Some in the education sector point out that the tendency of middle and high school students to distort history and engage in hate culture is partly due to the middle school Korean history curriculum being centered on pre-modern history. They argue that this leads to students entering high school without a sufficient understanding of modern and contemporary history, only to study history in an 'exam-oriented' manner.
According to an analysis by Yonhap News on the 12th of the seven current middle school history textbooks (History 2), the proportion of modern and contemporary history averaged 17.2%.
In particular, the textbook known to be most widely used by middle schools (published by Mirae N) had only 12.7% (28 pages) of modern and contemporary history. Excluding the cover and exploration activities, the actual main text amounted to 16 pages.
Looking only at the 'democratization process' section, where students' 'historical distortion and hate' often occurs, the average across the seven textbooks was 10.5 pages, accounting for 4.8% of the total.
In the Mirae N textbook, the 'democratization process' section was only 6 pages (2.7%), the smallest among the seven textbooks. In particular, the description of the May 18 Democratization Movement was limited to a single paragraph of two sentences.
Observers inside and outside the education sector speculate that the controversy surrounding the Baejae High School baseball team may accelerate the government's push to 'expand the share of modern and contemporary history in middle school history textbooks'.
Earlier, the Ministry of Education submitted a 'request for curriculum revision' to the National Education Commission, proposing to increase the proportion of modern and contemporary history in middle school history from the current 20% to 30%. This was in line with the 'Plan to Revitalize School History Education' announced in February.
At the time, the Ministry explained, "The current middle school history curriculum has many limitations in thoroughly learning modern and contemporary history," and "We also reflected the field voices that teaching modern and contemporary history is realistically difficult in the second semester of the third year of middle school due to high school entrance exams and other academic schedules."
The National Education Commission met on the 11th of last month to discuss the Ministry's proposal, but due to sharp differences of opinion among members, they decided to gather further opinions and continue discussions.
The Commission is set to submit and decide on the 'plan to increase the proportion of modern and contemporary history' at a plenary session on the 16th, about a month later, but the outcome remains uncertain.
An education sector official said, "It seems that the opinions of the standing and non-standing members who have voting rights are still sharply divided," and added, "If no agreement is reached, there is a possibility of a vote for or against."
Yonhap News
