A MALE teacher who asked his students to upload photos of them washing their underwear has received a suspended jail sentence.
In the incident that happened last year in the South Korean city of Ulsan, the elementary school teacher told his students to upload the photos into the class' online community.
The teacher, who has since been sacked, had also posted inappropriate comments about his students.
The Korea Times reports that the Ulsan District Court has sentenced the teacher to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the law on child abuse.
The court also ordered him to receive 40 hours of lectures on sexual violence prevention and banned him from working in any jobs related to children for five years.
The former teacher's inappropriate behaviour was made public in April last year, when a parent shared screenshots of the teacher's comments on social media.
The man, who is in his 40's, had ordered his first-grade students to upload the photos and then shared them on social media.
He also left several lewd comments such as "I like her pink underwear," "She is sexy and charming" and "I'm begging my wife to divorce me so that I can marry you when you grow up."
A petition was filed on the presidential website calling for his dismissal and it attracted more than 20,000 signatures.
The Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education then reported the teacher to the police and sacked him in May last year.
This is among the problems faced by students as schools moved to online teaching since last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Just last week, schools and kindergartens in the greater Seoul area switched to full-time remote classes again as social distancing rules were enforced.
Children at public and private kindergartens receive only online education without interaction with teachers and friends.
According to the Times, this situation has given rise to concerns that negative effects from lack of social interaction development and learning gaps may occur among the children.
Pre-schoolers are encouraged to take remote classes run by the education ministry, while some kindergartens also offer real-time video classes using tools like Zoom.
However, parents are concerned about potential learning gaps, because most pre-schoolers have difficulties concentrating on remote classes, especially without help from a parent or other adults.
An Education Ministry official said they were aware on concerns about the learning gap.
"At this point, we have been continuously updating the educational content and materials on the website for pre-schoolers for parents and pre-schoolers to use at home," the official said.