Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/07/04/200707040077.asp
Hagwon industry broken down?


Almost everyone would agree that the private English education system in Korea has broken down. Many foreign English teachers are being cheated out of pay and benefits while the Korean governmental agencies responsible for protecting foreign teachers are not getting the job done. As a result, honest foreign teachers are leaving Korea while foreigners with fake diplomas are teaching at hagwon and others are making big money by breaking the law and teaching English through private lessons.
Korean parents are naive to think the only losers in the present system are honest foreign teachers. Korean parents are losing money because some dishonest hagwon owners are able to drive up the prices charged for English classes by creating a false scarcity of foreign teachers. These dishonest hagwon owners manipulate the weak legal system to drive out many good teachers. As a result, parents are paying too much money to send their children to private institutes and the children are losing because good teachers are leaving Korea for better pay and legal protection.

What should be done? The Korean government needs to toughen laws to crack down on everyone in the hagwon industry who is making money from dishonesty and illegal activities. Quality and honesty in the private English education system are simply not rewarded under current laws. Those who choose to break the law should face stiff penalties. This includes: illegal teachers and hagwon owners who employ illegal teachers, and those who cheat honest teachers. All should be driven out of the hagwon industry. Then, the Korean government needs to increase the pay and benefits for foreign teachers in the public school system. This way, every Korean child can have access to at least a functional level of conversational English. Remember, there are good foreign English teachers in Korea, and they deserve respect and dignity.


William Mattiford Jr.



2007.07.04

[wylies99]

The writer makes some good points. Koreans need to repair THEIR system.

[spliff]

The guy in your avatar looks about the mentality of the writer of this article...

[tomato]

Police raids aren't the answer.
The children say "teacher, pencil no" and "teacher, hwajangshil" at nearly all English schools, legal or illegal.
Improving our teaching methods is the answer.

[Col.Brandon]

I'd like to congratulate the writer for spelling 'lose' correctly.

[jlb]

I think a visa system more like Japan could help the situation immensely. If you owned your own visa and had freedom to leave a bad school, I think a lot of the crap hagwons wouldn't be able to find teachers and would eventually be forced out of business.

[ED209]

[Bibbitybop]

[seoulsteve]

Change has to come from everyone involved. Parents need to be more concerned about sending their kids to an honest and well run institution. It seems obvious to me that many student's are being poorly educated as a result of hagwon owners trying to save a few won (ie oversized classes, overworked teachers, etc.) These owners are only interested in money, and nothing is going to change that. I don't know why parents keep spending money on hagwons that are obviously ineffective.

[root555]

I think getting rid of the E-2 LofR is part of the answer. The other is (at least for public schools,) is that complaints be taken seriously- and not adjusted within the hierarchy typical to Korean society (i.e. a younger principal cannot fire a bad older teacher because of age/seniority. I have a friend who says this is a problem at their public school despite parents' complaints.)

I know this is easier said than done.

I was at a demo lesson recently- and the native Eng. teachers discussed our concerns/complaints in a meeting afterwards. We discussed our problems with the public school system and we all had the same concerns. Here is a run-down:

1. Co- teacher doesn't even show up, and if they do rarely do they help or teach. (sometimes they even nap in the back of the room.) And when co-teacher is present, not translating any of the English so that the students can understand the task at hand. (i.e. not translating the directions to a game, or an activity- so that the students are basically left not knowing what is going on....)

2. Not given any training for the job

3. Not given any curriculum for some classes, and not given an idea of the level or ability of the students in order to create one. Even worse- not told what the students have been learning prior to our position at the school, or where they are in their English learning process.

4. Not told about special needs children in the class, (i.e. finding out halfway through the year that a child is mentally slow or autistic but they stick him in the regular English class anyway, and pretend it's not an issue. Or having a kid from another country who is in the process of learning Korean, as well as English- and not being told until the end of the semester...as happened to me.)

5. Not being allowed to give out punishment for the bad kids. And if the native teacher does- having another teacher intervene and reduce the punishment- making the native teacher look like a fool- and further losing the respect of students when they act up in the future so that the native teacher has even more trouble controlling difficult classes.

6. Having teachers who can't speak or read English 'oversee' the curriculum created by the native teacher. (Don't ask me how this even works....but it's happened.) And the curriculum chosen by these people is way above or below the level of the students- so that it isn't even used by the co-teacher, and they're left with nothing to teach.

These are just the average complaints I hear from other public school teachers, and that I've experienced myself. So I think there is a LOT to be said about 'fixing' the system. But honestly, how is one to teach and even do the basic functions of their job when given so many constraints????

[root555]

And sorry- the reason I post these P-school problems on this Hagwon thread, is because I've heard of the same complaints from Hogwan teachers- only much worse. And Public schools are seen as being so much better than Hogwans. I think that the Korean education system as a whole, P-schools and Hogwans have the same problems.

[The_Conservative]

[The_Conservative]

[normalcyispasse]

[wylies99]