Korean Job Discussion Forums

[goat]

There has been a nearly 42% decrease in Native English Teachers in the past 5 years in public schools.

[ttompatz]

[goat]

[PRagic]

There was just a big article on this in the Herald (loathe to admit that I actually pick up that rag from time to time, but so be it).

Middle and high schools have trimmed the most. More pressure on schools to use their budgets to improve facilities and programs for working families.

To boot, they are keen to bring in Korean teachers to teach English more and more, though the utility of that move is hotly debated.

The flip side of the argument is that this development will put more pressure on families to up their private spending on English lessons for the kids. This, argue some, benefits the wealthy and does little to level the playing field.

[World Traveler]

The number of native English teachers at public schools has dropped nearly 42 percent over five years and is expected to fall further in the face of government funding cuts over alleged poor results.

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=215854

An official at the North Chungcheong Province Office of Education said the sharp cut in native English teachers in the province was attributable to the increasing availability of well-educated English-speaking Korean teachers.

“We used to recruit native English speakers as teachers to give students who couldn’t afford a trip to an English-speaking country first-hand learning from native English speakers,” the official said. “But now it’s easy for children to meet native English speakers through social clubs and other casual and affordable ways. So we have decided to increase the number of Korean teachers who will be able to improve students’ proficiency with various training and tests.”

[Yaya]

I think that many native speakers have more choices than before when it comes to teaching English. The bad stories about Korea are all over the web, and given that one can teach in China or Vietnam and save quite a bit of money while having to deal with more friendly people...

[PRagic]

Agreed. 20-30 years ago, you didn't have many options if you wanted to teach in Asia. Japan was a default destination and Korea was an option getting better by the year. Especially prior to the Asian financial crisis, Seoul, in particular, was pretty lucrative. HK was there, but the jobs weren't great.

Now? If you want to teach a few years after university, you could do several countries over here on a tour of the region, then settle in wherever you like the best. Japan, Korea, China (and HK), Vietnam, Thailand...you'll make and/or save more in some counties than others, but you'd have an interesting few years!

[PRagic]

Taiwan, too! You could really do 5 or 6 years in 5 or 6 countries over here no problem. Might not have a lot of savings to show for it at the end of the stint, but it'd be a wild ride.

[isitts]