Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Shiktang]

From the Korea Times

Sloppy International Schools

During a recent administrative inspection of the Seoul Office of Education, Lee Su-jeong, a Seoul Metropolitan Council member representing the Democratic Labor Party, said that some U.S.-owned and other international schools had become ``royal academies" for the children of wealthy Koreans.

For instance, she said, 60 percent of students in the Seoul Academy International School were Korean. According to the education office's data, the U.S.-owned school had the highest percentage of Korean students among international schools here ― 101 out of 166 students. Coming next was the French Lycee International Xavier (43.2 percent), followed by the U.S.-owned Asia Pacific International School (36.6 percent), Korea International School (30.8 percent) and Centennial Christian School (27.9 percent).

Students who have lived abroad for at least three years are legally allowed to enroll in international schools. However, many of these schools will accept anyone whose parents are willing to pay the exorbitant fees. In fact, there are many students attending these international schools who have never lived abroad or who have only been abroad for holidays.

Such schools are ``cash-and-grab schools," or greedy schools, and they should be fined and forced to refund the school fees of those students who don't meet the requirements to attend an international school. The school should have the students withdraw and look for education elsewhere. Maybe councilwoman Lee Su-jeong could set up a committee to visit every international school and demand to see the passports of every student for verification of time spent abroad. I'm sure enrollments of a lot of these schools would drop considerably, and some might even be forced to close.

Many international schools have a difficult time recruiting qualified teachers and some parents are not satisfied with the teachers that the schools get. ``I think the education authority should take more care of this issue,'' said the mother of a student enrolled at an international school in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province (from the Korea Times article in July 2008, headlined ``Korea Sloppy in Overseeing Foreign Schoolteachers").

If these schools paid higher salaries, more qualified teachers would come to Korea. As it is, a lot of international schools pay their teachers a salary comparable to that paid by the average English academy or government-sponsored public school to native speakers ― for doing two to three times the amount of work.

Teachers at international schools are also required to be involved in various extracurricular activities and participate in a myriad of other activities as well ― such as marking tests and meeting students ― in addition to their basic duty of teaching.

Your basic English academy or government-sponsored public school teacher, among other things, has access to a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) material online or from other sources, has the freedom to be creative, and is required to maintain a semblance of order in the classroom ― but is not responsible for a student's grade or the student's ability to pass the entrance test to gain admission to a Korean university.

Unfortunately, very few good, qualified teachers would ever accept employment away from his or her home country for the low salary that is offered by many of these so-called international schools. Those that do are probably working from a different agenda and have other priorities in coming to Korea.

Many international schools end up having to accept whomever they can get, and that means they will have to hire recent graduates without any teaching experience. Some of these inexperienced new graduates do very well as teachers, but they usually only stay for a year before moving on to more meaningful employment.

That doesn't lead to the teacher continuity that students need, and parents pay enough for tuition and other expenses to rightfully demand that their children be taught continuously by experienced teachers. The law pertaining to international schools requires that their teachers have at least two years of background in education (teaching experience), so those schools that hire new graduates without experience are doing so in defiance of the law. A foreign school in Gwangju, for example, consistently hires teachers without experience from the Princeton in Asia employment agency, and also accepts students who haven't lived abroad for the mandatory three years.

The Korea Times article I mentioned above stated that ``each regional office is not fulfilling it's duty properly, and they don't have the tools to correct any impropriety in international private schools".

``International schools are autonomous," said Kim Hong-sop, a director-general of the Education Ministry. In response, city and provincial education offices point out that the regulations are impractical.

``We have limits in supervising the schools. I don't know how many schools would report properly as we don't provide any subsidies to them as we do to other schools, " said Cho Wan-seok, an official of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education.

Why should receiving a subsidy determine whether a school be inspected to insure that it is providing the right services for their students? Shouldn't all institutions in Korea be policed equally for impropriety by the education department? How can international schools be autonomous, and why don't regional offices have the tools to discipline and penalize delinquent schools?

Essentially, international schools are being given free license to charge anything they like for either inadequate or adequate education, and to hire any teacher regardless of his or her background and experience.

The writer has taught at Kyungsan University, Uiduk University and international schools in Japan and Korea.

[ED209]

[Medic]

Here's the article reffered to by the OP


http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/117_27491.html

Korea Sloppy in Overseeing Foreign School Teachers

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The nation�s top education offices are neglecting rules on foreign schools. The rules set by the education ministry have since 1999 stipulated that each city and provincial education office secure teachers� profiles when issuing licenses.

Seoul, Gyeonggi among other education offices across the nation have not obtained the personal data of teachers at these 51 foreign schools with about 10,000 enrolled students. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education oversees 20 foreign schools and Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education eight.

Their neglect of duty to secure teachers� resumes showcases the lack of proper recruitment channels of teachers at those schools, while private cram schools or hagwon are required to report the profiles of their teachers to education offices.

Some parents of students say the education offices should at least ascertain who is teaching at which foreign schools.

``I�ve heard foreign schools have difficulties inviting qualified teachers to Korea and some parents are not satisfied with teachers. I think the education authority should take more care of this issue,�� said a mother of a student enrolled at a foreign school in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

Teachers of the schools, with more than $20,000 tuition annually, are known to earn much higher salaries than those at normal schools.

The education ministry is unaware of the number of teachers at those schools. Moreover, less than 20 percent of teacher at the schools display open information on their teachers on Web sites.

``I have no complaints about the teachers of my children so far, but at least, there should be a system to guarantee qualification of teachers,�� said Mudassir Iqbal, father of children attending foreign schools in Seoul.

Many foreign schools publicize they hire only those holding teaching licenses but their announcement often contradicts the reality. ``When I applied to the school, I had no teaching certificate but they said `no problem� �� said a Korean-American who worked for five years at an international school in southern Seoul.

The immigration agency this year has introduced minimum requirements for foreigners applying for the teaching positions, bachelor degrees with two-year education experience. In Japan, only foreigners holding teaching certificates are eligible for a teaching visa at international schools.

Passing the Buck

For its part, the education ministry admitted that each regional education office is not fulfilling its duty properly. However, the ministry has no policy tools to correct it. ``The central government has little to do with (their failure to secure teachers� profiles) as they are basically autonomous,�� said Kim Hong-sop, director general of the education ministry. ``If they do anything wrong, their auditors will take care of it.��

In response, city and provincial education offices point out the regulations are impractical. ``We have limits in supervising the schools. I don�t know how many schools would report properly as we don�t provide any subsidies to them as we do to other schools,�� said Cho Wan-seok, official of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education.

Teachers� groups criticized both the education ministry and education offices for trying to avoid responsibilities on the negligence. ``The quality of education cannot go beyond the quality of teachers. While the government is planning to ease rules on the international schools, it should adopt a system to improve the quality of teachers at the same time,�� said Kim Dong-seok, spokesperson of the Korean Federation of Teachers� Association.

Meanwhile, the Lee Myung-bak administration plans to ease regulations involving the foreign schools. With the relaxation of the rules, it will allow nonprofit foreign corporations and Korean educational foundations to set up international schools from next year. Currently, only individual foreigners can found the schools. Korean universities have not acknowledged diplomas from the schools so far, but the school graduates will be treated the same as those who attend Korean schools. The minimum years required for Korean students to stay overseas for enrollment at foreign schools was shortened to three years from five.

Hyun In-cheol, spokesman of the Korean Teachers & Education Workers� Union, said, ``It does not make sense for the government to relax rules without instituting appropriate monitoring and supervision over foreign schools.��

[email protected]

[Medic]

[Elvis Gratton]

The people I've met who've taught at international schools in Korea have left me with very little to envy. The fact that Korean parents would still be clamoring to send their kids to these places really says something about what people really think of the education system here, doesn't it?

[CA-NA-DA-ABC]

[Shiktang]

Check the review of International schools. You'll see many horror stories from teachers who taught at Korean International schools. The bad reviews don't come from any one particular school either.

There are three big very reputable International schools and they are in Seoul. The rest of them seem to be quite shoddy.

Teachers who have een in the International school scene say that the fake degree thing is rife. It happens in korea, and the immigration have tried to nip it in the bud by requesting apostilled transcripts etc., but in Taegu the guy checking the documents just opened the sealed envelopes with the transcripts and put a check mark next to your name and that was it.

[T-dot]

THere are only a handful of ILHS's and FLH's. The others are just overpriced hagwons with the ILHS or FLHS tags.

My GF's friend sent their kids to certain "ILHS". At one point the school was so desperate that they change requirement from both parents with overseas citizenship to one parent with an overseas passport to at least one student had to have spent time overseas. They took any kid that had a parent that was willing to fork over the dough. Apparently their English skills were just horrible, but they passed through a stringent know your ABC's evaluation test.

Joke.

[Len8]

[Geckoman]

What are the visa requirements to teach at an international school in Korea? Are they the same to be an ESL teacher?

To get a visa to be an ESL teacher you have to have a bachelor's degree or higher. Do you also have to have a bachelor�s degree to be able to teach at an international school?

[Medic]

The teachers at International schools are usually on E-7 visas. Aint much better than E-2 visa. E-2 visa holders must teach English in one .form or another. International school teachers teach all subjects

[Cheonmunka]

I worked for a wee hagwon for a while which was designed around the principle of getting kids reading fast then they could go to a foreign school (15-20k annual fees) because they could read.
In the first class we did intros and we were going thru some questions. I asked this 15 year old kid, "So, what's your favorite food?" We waited about three minutes but he couldn't give an answer. So, I asked him to draw me his favorite food.
Guess what the picture was ...



A fish.

He was accepted to enter a foreign language high school yet he didn't even know the word 'fish.'
F^%% sake.

[Mr. Pink]

I am a member of International School Review and really the biggest complaints that people have that come teach in Korea are: the cost is too much to maintain a "western" lifestyle. (Duh, no kidding on that one, it is NOT a western country.) Also, a lot of people don't care for Korean food.

As for the schools, the reviews are mixed. I got the impression that SFS would suck to work for as it has mostly Korean students and the moms have way too much power over the admin. Also, the apartments are on campus, so you can't get away from the job. No thanks to that one. SIS and KIS seemed okay, with KIS having better recent reviews since the admin started to invest more in better apartments etc. Yongsan International School is Christian, so it doesn't use recruiting agencies to fill spots. Thus, it is hard to get info on whether it would be a good place to work at. For me, even though I am Christian, I wouldn't want to work in a place that was so uptight.

The article is right though, there are some SHODDY International Schools. I looked at the ones outside Seoul and with the exception of Songdo International School in Incheon, all of them pay what I could make at a hawgwon or with GEPIK. By paying so low, how can they really expect to attract talented teachers?

Even the schools in Seoul pay pretty low compared to some of the better schools in Asia. For a guy like me, the money isn't bad...and next year I will be looking to get into either SIS or KIS. The reason the money isn't bad is my kid can get a tuition waver, so that would be like adding another 20-30k a year to my hawgwon or GEPIK salary.

Oh, the other clincher is many of these shoddy schools don't even have certified teachers. WTF? That should be a government regulation that is checked when getting a visa. No teaching license, no job.

The bottom line is many qualified people can make more outside of International Schools. They are only good if you have kids and want an English education for them, or you want that experience so you can move onto something bigger and better.

[CA-NA-DA-ABC]

Mr. Pink I sent you a PM.

[james riot]

Mr. Pink, what exactly do you consider to be 'bigger and better?' I've got pretty much the same background as you (B.ed. from Ontario - History and English), and was considering working at an international school next year, so I'd love to hear from you what a better alternative would be.

I'd PM you, but I've got too few posts.