5,000 Korean English Teachers to Be Recruited This Year
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The government is to recruit about 10,000 Korean instructors for conversational English classes at public schools over the next two years amid difficulties in the hiring of native English teachers.
They are expected to replace native English speakers in the long term, depending on their effectiveness, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said, Monday.
This year, it will hire 2,000 ``practical English instructors'' for elementary schools and another 3,000 for secondary schools. The ministry will start accepting applications in June and announce the successful candidates in August. The teachers will work from the fall semester.
Another 5,000 are to be recruited next year,
``Practical English lecturers will take part in extended English classes at elementary schools. At secondary schools, they will group students according to their academic level and offer tailor-made classes,'' ministry official Euh Hyo-jin said.
The Korean instructors will receive about 26 million won ($18,882) in annual pay on a one-year contract and can renew for up to four years at one school. In comparison, native English teachers receive about 30 million won.
``Foreign native English speakers cannot teach students without Korean teachers, but the newly recruited teachers can teach on their own. We expect these instructors will replace foreign teachers over the long term,'' Euh added.
Candidates with teaching licenses will be given preference, although those who don't hold teaching certificates are eligible for the position. Recruiters at regional education offices will review applicants' profiles, English certificate scores and education career. Those who are accepted after the first document screening will have an opportunity to demonstrate their teaching abilities in English before taking an interview that they need to pass.
A survey by Korea's largest teachers group, the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations, showed that more than half of existing English teachers opposed the recruitment of practical English instructors. The group asked 425 English teachers at elementary and secondary schools across the country and 57 percent of them responded negatively to the English instructors, while 25 percent said they need the instructors.
Among those respondents against the instructors, 46 percent said it would bring unqualified teachers to schools and 21 percent said current teacher levels were already sufficient.
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Please stay on topic.
ItalianCanuck1 (121.170.146.245)
04-01-2009 10:28
Might be strange, pastor, I am not sure. But isn't technically, the foreign teacher the real assistant? My understanding is that the Korean "co-teacher" usually has more control in the classroom.
jimbo1a (59.20.215.89)
03-31-2009 23:22
Attempts to contact family or friends were futile, resulting in several hang-ups. It was reported that several men were standing in the area where he died, but refused to help. Coincidently, these are the same men who were in a sauna in 2008 and refused to help a young American boy who was drowning. Mr. Theissons body was donated to the local Salvation Army. There will be no services as Mr. Theisson was thought to be an atheist.
jimbo1a (59.20.215.89)
03-31-2009 23:21
School authorites assumed he either moved in with one of his younger students, or went back to Canada. No one has reported him missing for the entire two years. An autopsey performed by the local veternarian showed Mr. Theisson suffered from morbid obesity, severe degeneration of the brain, several STD's and aids. Experts have tentatively put the time of death between July 2009 and January 2010, when his subscription to Boys Life expired.
jimbo1a (59.20.215.89)
03-31-2009 23:21
I can see a headline in the KT about 2 years from now: Canadian English teacher found dead. The decomposed body of David Theisson, a Canadian who was teaching in Korea for several years, was found in the brush outside a young boys toilet late Saturday night. It was thought that Mr. Theisson died while watching the boys go in and out of the toilet. A cheap digital camera was found hanging around his neck. Mr. Theisson had not been at his school for more than two years
jimbo1a (59.20.215.89)
03-31-2009 23:20
You guys act like you think arse666 is someday going to make sense. He is a walking contradiction. His days must last for weeks with all of the hate and emotional instability he has. What a total waste of a human being. What purpose could he actually serve on this planet?
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