Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bibbitybop]

I guess what this boils down to is a school or organization's personal requirements for being hired. Because it is not part of Korean Immigration's requirements. What gets me is that it sounds like these are public schools pulling this bullshit and are part of the Korean government that doesn't have these online-verification requirements.

Chalk it up with Korean officials not understanding the way most other countries work in regards to privacy laws. Our cultures don't share confidential medical information with non-authorized people, our embassies don't produce background checks (especially on the spot when Korea decides to hastily request them from foreigners) and our universities (which ranks way higher than Korea's) don't simply state our personal information on a free-for-all website or have a reason to do so.

To the people told by co-teachers at public schools that they won't be rehired, go higher up in the chain. Co-teachers don't make contracts, even if their comments about you might influence contracts. From CentralCali's comment, it sounds like some people already are going higher up.

[CentralCali]

Thanks, BB. Actually, a lot of people in the last couple of months went higher up. In my district, all of us did. It's not the public schools per se nor even Immigration, but rather the Ministry of Education that came up with the ridiculous requirement. I loved the wording of it too: "Comply or you will be prosecuted." Our district's school inspector had already told her boss at the BMOE that the MOE's letter was incredibly offensive and the requirement poorly thought out and unworkable for many of us.

You know the old saying about not shooting the messenger. Well, my co-teacher found out the hard way that sometimes shooting the messenger is the way to go. I vented on her in front of our department head and tossed that stupid letter into the hallway. My department head was in shock, too--he bailed out of the room and reported the situation to the principal. The best part about it was the principal jumping down the co-teacher's throat when she tried to explain herself: "CentralCali has never raised his voice in the two years he's been in our school. Obviously you did something wrong and you better not do it again. Go figure out a way to keep him from quitting right now."

I expected the MOE notice to come down the pike but not as soon as it did and certainly not with that incredibly short deadline. That's how I already knew my university didn't participate with the studentclearinghouse site, which, by the way, is a legitimate entity for student records--I checked the site for its credentials and if my university was involved with it. Also, the clearing house only provides information in accordance with US privacy laws. My university does participate on another site, similar to that one, but there was absolutely no way I was going to tell anyone about that.

I faxed the request for verification to my registrar's office and luckily got the thing in my e-mail (I use e-fax, a US fax number that receives the fax as an attachment to e-mail) around 2:30 in the morning. I say luckily because I was hoping it would come at a ridiculous time of the night in Korea. I immediately sent an SMS message to my co-teacher to inform her the thing arrived. Since I had to send it in two parts, I waited about 30 minutes between messages. Got to wake her up twice.

[sojourner1]

This is so stupid and idiotic. Ask you to get on the computer and prove you have a college degree.


Come on! You already proved that by showing it. Why can't they call the university or your country's department of education?

At my hagwon, my head foreign teacher calls the university to see if you really are alumni. This with the real diploma proved enough.


I find asking to log onto your university site to prove you are a graduate after you already proved this and got the job to be a big insult!

What are they thinking????? This is not friendly, but indifferent. That saddens me that it's like this.

[jaderedux2]

[Draz]

[adeline]

I could do it, but that would mean showing my private information such as all my financial stuff with the uni, my adresses, identifying numbers, etc etc. Plus this part of the system is pretty ghetto compared to the homepage. Maybe they wouldn't believe me. I don't think the idea of privacy especially with regards to information, has caught on here. Maybe when there is an epidemic of identity theft it will.

[Draz]

[lastat06513]

This concept is Korean
Koreans can access their university webpage and then access their degree information and even print out a copy of their degree.


Thats one of the things that makes Koreans suspicious of foreigners, Koreans automatically think that if they can do stuff like that, that every "developed" country and their higher educational system "should" have the same type of system and when teachers admit their university doesn't have that type of system, that their is some suspicion about the teacher's credibility or that the university system should change to accomodate them..........which they won't.

[Ut videam]

[pharflung]

I don't have anything against the National Student Clearinghouse. It would be nice if Korea would accept it as proof of a college diploma, though my school is not a participant.

But let me remind you of the facts: I was ordered to go to my college's website, log on, and produce a statement by my school that I received a bachelor's degree from it.

They did no say go to some other website and display proof of a degree. They said go to my college's website and display proof.

I told my co-teacher this was impossible. Not only did I graduate before the advent of the internet, the university does not list an e-mail address or fax number for the registrar. And as to me logging on to the university's website, I am not a computer hacker!

I asked my co-teacher if this was satisfactory, or if there was anything else I should do. He said, "no, no," smiled, and said it was fine.

So, months later I learn from the county supervisor I would not be rehired because I did not prove I had a diploma from my college.

I had earlier asked for the county to give me specifics on what I would need to provide under the new rules if I were rehired to get a visa. They have provided me with nothing, nada, zilch. So I am dead in the water. Even if I were to try to prepare to have my contract extended, I have no definite information about what they need.

My advice to public school teachers who are nearing the end of their contract and want to renew their contract is to not rely on your co-teacher. You need to speak to your country supervisor in person and ask him or her whether they want to renew your contract. If you rely on your co-teacher, all you may hear is silence. And in this case, silence apparently means "drop dead."

I have the feeling that at some point they are going to come to their senses; I am a good teacher and everyone at the school seems to know this. But I am not going to wait till two weeks before my contract expires for this.

In short, don't count on this national clearing house to solve your "online proof" problem. The county supervisor gets his directive from Seoul, and unless he is an unusually reasonable person, will simply do what he is told, regardless of the consequences. Unless the clearinghouse is listed as acceptable proof by Seoul, I seriously doubt anyone in Korea will accept it.

[garykasparov]

It shouldn't go beyond verifying your credentials one time. Any requests beyond the first time are excessive and insulting. It's more or less a trust issue with most schools. If they trusted their teachers, they wouldn't be asked to verify their degrees through studentclearinghouse.com.

[idonojacs]

OK, class, how many of you think your university's computer that holds students' academic records is linked to the computer that hosts your university's website?

Hands?

And how many of you have the password to the computer that holds those records?

Hands?

[pharflung]

FLASH!






This just in!





It turns out your school can lie for you and tell the district supervisor that you did what they asked.

Who would've thunk it!

Oh, by the way. After I was informed of this startling news by my co-teacher, I was also told that the deadline for confirming your diploma online was two days ago. Good luck, folks.

[nobbyken]

I logged into the Open University website, and showed my student record page OK.

My co-teacher asked if there was a list of names anywhere?

Not online I explained, but then I remembered that my mum had kept the documents wallet given out on graduation day. In it was a printed list of everybody attending the ceremony.

I feel sorry for those less fortunate, I know I spent 4 tough years studying and having to prove it over and over is just not cricket.
I guess managers (I use the term very losely) in government education have no sense or really care.

They will always find teachers to replace the ones they lose.

[spliff]