Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

Schools freed from state control




The Education Ministry yesterday disclosed its plans to free elementary, middle and high schools from state control, and to hand over much of its supervisory role to local education authorities.
It is the first time the central government as taken a hands-off approach on school operation.

Twenty-nine rules concerning matters such as after-school classes and lessons targeted for students of different academic levels will be scrapped this month, and another 13 will be revised in June, the ministry said.


Seniors at a Seoul high school take a national exam yesterday. [Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald]
Local superintendents, instead of the Education Minister, will appoint principals and school inspectors. The revised bills are slated to be submitted to the National Assembly in June. "The ministry drew up the deregulation plans in accord with the Lee Myung-bak administration's policy to expand local autonomy and diversify school education," vice minister Woo Hyung-shik said in a briefing yesterday.

"The government's role will be limited to protecting the students' rights in terms of health and safety. It will continue to have control on physical checkups, physical education, school violence and classes at unusual hours."

Provincial and municipal superintendents will be in charge of elementary, middle and high school education in their regions, the ministry announced.

The central government will focus on the education of pre-school children and the disabled, as well as students and schools that fall behind.

Schools will no longer be prohibited from employing hagwon instructors for after-school lessons, or from using exams administered by private organizations. They will no longer be barred running supplementary classes before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m.

Elementary schools will be freed from the state regulation that limited their after-school classes to only music, computers, arts or sports. Students of different academic levels have only been able to take separate lessons in math and English until now, but those restraints will be eliminated.

"It could be chaotic for a while as individual schools and local education authorities are to make decisions for themselves, but we believe it wouldn't lead to extreme cases of streaming students according to their ability for all subjects or keeping students at schools past 10 p.m.," said a senior ministry official.

The Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations said in a statement yesterday that it welcomed the overall initiative, but that the power allowing the superintendent to appoint principals should be reconsidered.

The Korean Teachers & Education Workers Union slammed the ministry's plan, saying it would stoke conflict among schools and the government was abandoning its duties.

"The schools would stretch classes around the clock and become like 24-hour hagwon," the union said in a statement.

Government rules regarding public school teachers' maternity leave and nighttime graduate schooling, the transfer of teachers between schools, and the evaluation of schools will also be abolished. Superintendents will set the standards for evaluating kindergartens and provide guidelines to elementary, middle and high schools, in addition to designating institutes in remote areas.

More controversial issues, such as the rules for establishing special-purpose schools, will be settled in the latter half of this year, the ministry said.

Those who wish to open a special-purpose school such as a foreign language high school are currently required to confer with the government in advance.

The government plans to open 300 specialized high schools nationwide. The ministry said last month that it will select 88 schools in rural areas this year to become public boarding schools, and another 20 to be professional "meister" (the German word for "master," typically used in the context of master craftsmanship) schools.

Aiming to open 100 autonomous private schools by 2012, the ministry said it would prepare the necessary legislation by the end of this year, after selecting candidate schools from rural areas and small towns.


By Kim So-hyun

The Korea Herald

([email protected])

[VanIslander]

[majolica]

that sounds kind of scary... anyone have a more educated response to what things could look like in a couple years?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Wow - my school will *love* this.

[Hank the Iconoclast]

What the hell is this government thinking? Unbelievable. I am having a great time in Korea but they are so incredibly daft.

[bassexpander]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[bassexpander]

Well, I think they sort of said it wrong. I think this means they will allow more hiring of people for "after school programs." Remember, these are sometimes the shady ones that want you to open an illegal bank account in your name that they deposit money in for illegal reasons, leaving you with the tax burden later.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Unposter]

To be honest, much of that article is a little confusing. But, yeah, basically, it sounds like it would allow public schools to offer more educational "services," such as after school programs in which students pay extra. It also sounds like it means that the standards for hiring teachers for these after school programs will be lowered as anyone can teach them, not just certified teachers. In other words, if a public school chooses to open itself up as a "hakwon," it may do so.

It may also mean that public schools will compete for students. I believe there are even quotas and district limitations on who can attend what school but if these regulations are repealed or slackened, than schools may compete for any and as many students as possible, pocketing profits or going bankrupt as the market bares.

It also sounds like schools will be less regulated and supervised, nominally meaning that it will be easier for schools to be corrupt, which may sound strange to some, but as many schools ask for "bribes" from people who wish to be "teachers," it will be easier for schools to do so. Believe me, this really does happen in Korea, people pay as much as two-three hundred million won to be appointed as a "teacher." In return, they are given a job for life.

It will be real interesting to see what happens after the dust settles, but it definately looks like LMB is going to make big changes.

[PeterDragon]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The opportunity for schools to skim funds off the top will just be phenominal. Imagine if the average academic high school student's parents are spending .5 / month on hagwons. What if the school could get half of it. The corruption that could occur with these new regs could be astounding.

I wonder, however, if it could lead to a situation where students from school A are going to school B for their after-school programmes? I know that already happens with some government-run MS programmes. I wonder if schools will be able successfully to force students to attend their own school's programmes?

My friend, who owns a small but lucrative academy, is really going to hate to hear this. He already has had some major issues with a certain school about them letting thier students out of evening study hall to attend his hagwon.

[talltony4]

yeah, that competing for students thing, if it is reality, is a guaranteed disaster. Guaranteed.

basically the same thing was allowed to happen in NZ... so at my school we had loads of money spent on marketing, and a full day of teaching lost so we could have an "open day".

The rich schools will get richer, and the poor schools will get poorer

[bassexpander]

Doesn't it just seem like what you'd expect from someone opposite of Noh Mu Hyun?

The new policy really seems to favor the rich schools. I'm sure we'll be hearing all about that. Noh was all about trying to keep schools equal. IMB seems to want to allow schools to have more freedom to excel and outpace other places.

I also view this as sort of an attempt to redistribute wealth away from the hagwons. As was mentioned earlier by bumsucker, some people are going to figure out a way to skim money off of this in a huge way.