Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Been There, Taught That]

I come fresh from reading the Gyeonggi 'Center For Global Education' website concerning GEPIK schools. In short, I refused to believe everything I read. What a rosy picture, though....

It left me wondering about the difference between public school practices and all that typical hagwonnery going on. I was in three hagwons and overall had a successful run each time: paid on time always, no contractual disputes, etc ( I know the first one was flushing me out early for no reason but the director's own, but that's another tale that more than one of us can tell more than once), and I want a deal I can trust, or at least predict, when I do get back to Korea.

Specifically, all I really want to start out knowing is whether, overall, public schools have a reputation for paying on time every time. Also, with 21 months Korea experience and still teaching here in the States (and bringing my wife and 2-year-old daughter), can I justify asking for 2.5M/month?

[xCustomx]

[winnie]

I think the experiences with GEPIK will vary from school to school and it also depends on the local board of ed that you deal with.

In my case, I had to wait for my pay to be transferred from GEPIK to the local board of education, and then they would deposit it into my bank account. I was never ever paid on time. It was always at least a week late!

Also, when I was hired, I was told that GEPIK would pay for my ticket from Canada to Korea, and that my recruiter would pay for my visa run to Japan.

I bought a return ticket just so that I would have no problems dealing with immigration entering on a tourist visa. It cost me about 1500. A one way would have costed about 1400. Not a big difference.

When I got here, the recruiter refused to pay for my visa run(that ended up costing me about 600). And GEPIK was upset about the fact that I had bought a return ticket(I guess I can understand that to an extent) however, they offered to pay me only 700 for my ticket from Canada. They seemed to think that a one way should be half the cost of a return ticket

I resigned shortly after. I wouldn't recommend the program based on my experiences. But others may have had it different. There isn't any sort of consistency from what I can see.

[Gamecock]

One thing to keep in mind with regards to salary and public school jobs is that usually there is the opportunity to make more than your base salary, and still have far fewer teaching hours than even a good hogwan gig. Many people compare a 2.4 hogwan salary and a 2.2 public school salary and decide to go with the hogwan. However, that 2.2 is based on a maximum 22 teaching hours a week (40-50 minute classes being an hour), so it is like 88 hours per month compared to 120 at a hogwan (and often a hogwan DOESN"T count a 50 minute class as an hour!). As well, there is often the possibilty of overtime. I teach 5 classes a week over my 22 hours. And my schedule is still 8:30-4:30. As well, my school gives me a 160,000 won travel allowance a month because i teach at 2 different public schools (my actual travel expenses are about 12,000 a month). So even with a base salary of only 2.2, my actual net take home every month is 2.6 AFTER TAXES, PENSION, ETC.

Factor in much better vacations, as well as random days off/classes off (nearly every week) which I still get paid for...sports day, picnic day,
teachers day...Just yesterday my co-teacher told me all my morning classes were cancelled for ANOTHER random activity, so I sit around surfing online and still get paid for that time. These freebies almost never occur in the hogwan world, and if they do you don't get paid for em...

Some things to consider...Oh, and yes, you NEVER have to worry about getting paid on time.

[mrsquirrel]