Kang Eun-hee, the newly appointed gender minister, said Thursday she will strengthen parental education to eradicate child abuse in the country.
Extreme cases of violence against children have shocked the country every year, with the latest one having surfaced just a day earlier. On Wednesday, a pastor and his wife were arrested over suspicions of beating their daughter to death and keeping her body at home for almost a year.
“At this rate, child abuse cases will probably continue,” Kang told Yonhap News Agency in her first interview with the media since being inaugurated last month. “Poverty isn’t the only factor. Parents must be educated at a more fundamental level.”
Kang attributed the prevalence of child abuse to family dynamics that have changed over the past decades.
“In the past, a family was comprised of three generations, which allowed parents to learn how to parent, organically,” she said. “There’s no place for today’s parents to learn that. Schools don’t teach it.”
Increased spending alone wouldn’t be enough, Kang stressed. To make a real difference, she said, the issue requires a different approach.
“The country continues to invest a large sum of money on welfare, but child care subsidies are only meant to alleviate the financial burden of rearing a child and has little to do with good parenting,” she said. “We can, however, enlighten the parents through education.”
Before heading the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Kang was a member of the Gender Equality and Family Committee of the National Assembly for four years.
She has 15 years of business experience in the IT industry and headed the Korea IT Business Women’s Association.
She has a Bachelor’s degree in physics education from Kyungpook National University and a Master’s degree in computer science from Keimyung University. (Yonhap)
