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Crackdown---On Hakwon OWNERS too?
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TheUrbanMyth



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:48 am    Post subject: Crackdown---On Hakwon OWNERS too? Reply with quote

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I ran a search for "crackdown" and couldn't find it)


According to the Korean Times today a crackdown is going to start on people with fake degrees. The Seoul agencies plan to investigate several thousand hakwons in the Seoul area and lay charges against anyone with a fake degree. Any hakwon OWNERS who hired these people will also be charged (although it didn't specify knowingly or not). Other areas will be targeted as well.

Great news!!! Illegal teachers (Western AND Korean) plus hakwon directors getting their just deserts?

Sounds almost too good to be true. Well it's been what many people on this board have been asking for (at least for the hakwon owners)
The next few months should be interesting.....to say the least.
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FistFace



Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Location: Peekaboo! I can see you! And I know what you do!

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like they're gearing-up for more bribe money to me.

But yeah, it's good news.

Now if they would only go after the hundreds of Korean professors we all know are out there teaching with fake degrees. Remember, they found 30 in Incheon alone last year, and it proved so shocking that it was removed from the papers within a day, and covered-up faster than you can say Kimchi.

They're going after some high-profile Korean hagwon teachers, but that's too easy (the gov't hates hagwons).

I want to see some more Korean profs get busted.


Last edited by FistFace on Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:58 am; edited 1 time in total
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JongnoGuru



Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How utterly bribe-tastic! Very Happy
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Col.Brandon



Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is assuming they don't make a hash of it. Call me cynical, but they haven't exactly been renowned for their attention to detail and follow-through so far.

Case in point: Many of us have already been required to front up at the immigration office (at great personal inconvenience) to have our qualifications "verified". I know for a fact that people with fake degrees breezed through that process; I'll believe the effectiveness of this new crackdown when I see it.

By the way, I wonder if they've managed to close down all the brothels yet?
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TheUrbanMyth



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

FistFace wrote:
Sounds like they're gearing-up for more bribe money to me.

But yeah, it's good news.

Now if they would only go after the hundreds of Korean professors we all know are out there teaching with fake degrees. Remember, they found 30 in Incheon alone last year, and it proved so shocking that it was removed from the papers within a day, and covered-up faster than you can say Kimchi.

.


Apparently many professors WILL be included in this sweep...but this IS Korea and there's many a slip betwixt cup and lip.
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I-am-me



Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Location: Hermit Kingdom

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How will they know If a degree is fake? Will they call the university? It's hard enough for me to call my universtiy without being put on hold then asked for all kinds of information before they give me any info. Aside from that, university personnel dont speak korean and I doubt anyone doing the calling will be able to be understood. Rolling Eyes
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FistFace



Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Location: Peekaboo! I can see you! And I know what you do!

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

TheUrbanMyth wrote:


Apparently many professors WILL be included in this sweep...but this IS Korea and there's many a slip betwixt cup and lip.


And the sad thing is that every government teacher and professor in Korea has their degree on-file with an office near the National Theater/Itaewon area (so I read). It wouldn't take much to set up a team of people to start calling and verifying file after file.
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I-am-me



Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Location: Hermit Kingdom

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

..I wonder how many will be calling in sick when school starts? Laughing
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bellum99



Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: don't need to know

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bet many in Universities around Korea are shaking their boots. I think they have just found the tip of the iceberg and there are a lot of fake Korean professors running around. I actually hope there are and that they get caught. Lying in Korea is a cultural heritage..rewarded and seldom punished.
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wylies99



Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fake diplomas? IN Korea? Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes What else is new, EH?
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lastat06513



Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Location: Sensus amo Caesar , etiamnunc victus amo uni plebian

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok....

If the market does dry up and alot of the known backpackers are sent packing, will this open foreign teachers to the right to demand more money and better conditions?

I would like people to do a search and try to find a thread I recently wrote on the subject....
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=95194&highlight=

I still get the impression that the Hakwon owners would rather leave the business and start some other enterprise rather than cater to a bunch of "whining foreign wimps"......as some Hakwon owners have said about teachers and that if some teachers don't like the pay and conditions, "They can simply leave because there are hundreds of applicants trying for the same position...."

Yeah.....it is a blessing that the industry is cleaning up its act...but I highly doubt things will get better...at least anytime soon......
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indytrucks



Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf

PostPosted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lastat06513 wrote:
"They can simply leave because there are hundreds of applicants trying for the same position...."


Sadly, that's the reality of the EFL industry here. Take it for what it is, but Korea (and to a certain extent Taiwan) has built a reputation for hiring people that have no business teaching anything to anyone. The underqualified/people with fradulent degrees have steadily and successfully lowered the bar for the rest who have proper TEFL/TESL qualifications, leading to pay inequities, foreign lecturers who have difficulty obtaining tenure, the emergence of uniwons and so on. This is to say nothing for the crapwon sweatshops that continue to survive and employ foreigners in this day and age. This is a trend I have personally witnessed over the past ten years.

The fact is there will always be some burger flipper ready to sign on the dotted line for the promise of some quick cash, cheap booze and women to chase. End of story.
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The_Conservative



Joined: 15 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

lastat06513 wrote:
Ok....

...if some teachers don't like the pay and conditions, "They can simply leave because there are hundreds of applicants trying for the same position...."
......



Except that there aren't. Many hakwons are finding it very hard to fill positions. Even the public schools are way below the goal of the Department of Education.

Not quite sure where you get this hundreds or thousands of applicants from...
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Typhoon



Joined: 29 May 2007
Location: Daejeon

PostPosted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am pretty sure no universities are "shaking in their boots" or are too afraid of fake degrees. From what I've read most universities are only checking people hired for the next semester. It seems that no universities have signalled their intent to start checking the degrees of current professors/lecturers. I asked my university what they intended to do. The told me they would do nothing. They said that if the government comes checking they can do the work. It is a good thing for the teachers at my school that they have this attitude because I know of at least one teacher that has an illegal degree.
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Sophocles



Joined: 15 Mar 2007
Location: MetroSeoul

PostPosted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I-am-me wrote:
How will they know If a degree is fake? Will they call the university? It's hard enough for me to call my universtiy without being put on hold then asked for all kinds of information before they give me any info. Aside from that, university personnel dont speak korean and I doubt anyone doing the calling will be able to be understood. Rolling Eyes


Not to mention, I doubt that any immigration employee will be staying up nights to sync up their time with foreign countries' to call the universities. Someone told me the last time we went in for the check that they just looked at the visa, diploma and checked if the university was real by finding it online. Because, you know, fake degrees come from fake universities, right?
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