Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Chamchiman]

If you choose a random district, go to the Education Office website, and check which schools are "public" or "private", the numbers of "private" schools are very high. I chose Andong, and only three of thirteen high schools there are "public". The other ten are "private" institutions (whatever that means).

So, a few questions about public schools and private schools:

1. Are there actually three kinds of schools in Korea? Public schools, private schools AND public/private schools? What is the difference between how they are run? (Can somebody explain what a public/private school is?)

2. For those who are working in a private school (or a public/private school): are these institutions under the umbrella of the local or provincial education office (with respect to operating and hiring for native teacher programs) or do they exist and hire independently of programs such as GEPIK and EPIK?

3. Are there any benefits to working in a private school vs. a public school?

Cheers.

[Ya-ta Boy]

As far as I know, there are two kinds of schools, public and private. The private schools are privately owned, usually by a family. The only other differences I know of are that teachers in public schools passed some test or other and must transfer schools every couple of years (it varies a little bit).

I don't know an answer to #2.

#3: I worked for a year in a public school and one semester in a private school. I didn't notice any differences or benefits, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

[Draz]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Most genuinely private schools in Korea are elementary schools. Most 'private' middle / high schools are not much different from government controlled public schools. The key difference is that teachers stay at one school instead of getting moved around at least every five years.