Korean Job Discussion Forums

[World Traveler]

Wow. Bad news. I'm very surprised by this. Are you? First Seoul, then Busan, now a whole province. Things are not looking good for public school teachers.

[Coltronator]

Well in my opinion, given the fact that the Education Offices/Schools refuse to use the resource of a foreign teacher efficiently/at all then this is the right move. Why spend government tax dollars on a program that is ineffective?

It is however one of two possible correct actions. The other being spend more money and overhaul the system. Train the Korean Co-teachers in how the can and should utilize their foreign Co-Teacher. So that every Korean Co-Teacher is an effective mentor and organizer to maximize the benefits of having the foreigner as part of the faculty.

The wrong move is to continue the program as is. So in the end it will be good for Korea as the money has a chance to be used for some purpose that will benefit society. Though it may too end up wasted in some other endeavour, at least it has a chance to be spent in a worthwhile pursuit.

[World Traveler]

Wait a minute. How do you know it is ineffective and a complete waste of money? (Have you been to many public school classrooms across Korea? How many?) Maybe your co-teachers were lazy and didn't help you (and many that is the norm across Korea for "co"-teaching situations), but that doesn't mean you couldn't have done things on your own to be effective. I agree, teaching huge classes of students where the majority don't want to learn or pay attention is hard as hell especially with the language barrier (which is why help from the K-teachers would be good, and in fact is much needed). But to dismiss native teachers as a waste is foolish. Natives in public schools have done a lot to bring up the English level for both students and K- teachers. (The K-teachers' English level is so low, they are probably learning a lot from the English lessons. Not just how to teach but how to speak English.)

[Coltronator]

I didn't say it was a waste. I said it is being wasted. They are a great resource for the students. However, class sizes of 30 at the lower end and 50 at the higher end. With situations where the class is almost universally in my experience aimed at the middle 10-15 students abilities while ignoring the challenges the weaker ones are facing while being useless for the stronger ones. (conversations with 30 or so public school teachers, when I meet a new one and we start chatting I always ask about this situation) For those 15-20% of students in each class the lesson is a complete waste in the vast majority of cases. Their parents pay taxes the same as everyone else and have a valid reason to wish the money diverted elsewhere.

While having a lazy co-teacher is no excuse to not be productive and useful, it does mean that continued training of the foreigner to better the situation is left in the hands of someone who is now on their own to better it. As you said for many having a lazy, overworked, inexperienced, or uni-lingual co-teacher is the norm.

Maybe my statements of useless and needing an overhaul were extreme. Instead lets say that the is a great deal of improvement that the public NET situation could use and are far less useful than they could be. So, while not needing an overhaul, they would greatly benefit from adjustments to improve teamwork, efficiency, and overall usefulness.

[World Traveler]

This sums up the problems of the co-teaching system:

[Popocatepetl]

All this means is that they will hire more foreigners in after-school programs.

[World Traveler]

You think? Last time a big public school cut happened, posters said, "All this means is hagwons will hire more foreign teachers/more hagwon jobs will become available." That turned out not to be true.

South Jeolla Province recently cut all high school positions. So did Daejeon. This is a very bad thing for the ESL market in Korea (which is already flooded). (>_<)

[I-am-me]

so sad to hear. I'll be thinking of this while we spend the last week watching movies in class.

[World Traveler]

Welcome to the hagwon market.

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2956045

[BigBuds]

[nicwr2002]

Koreans don't want to "learn" English, they just want to "learn" it to past tests. They also don't want to learn it in English, they want to learn it in Korean. The teachers teach in Korean the whole time and even advanced books are written mostly in Korean. Even the questions on the test or written in Korea. When I learned Spanish in high school and Japanese in college, once you got to intermediate level, the English disappeared. They don't care about English outside the classroom. It's just something they have to learn to get into college.

[cabeza]

True in some (many?) cases. But where I work I'd say there is a solid 30-40% who really want to learn English as they want to be able to converse in the language.

[nicwr2002]

[NohopeSeriously]

Behold, the collapse of public education in Worst Korea..... wait. I meant South Korea.

(I've talked to mothers who are veteran PS teachers and they fear the same thing.)

[some waygug-in]

The hagwon associations will be very happy.