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alphalfa
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:55 am Post subject: changes under EPIK |
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It appears there will be some upcoming changes to the EPIK program.
The changes appear to be
a. a cap on the number of native English speakers
b. the re-signing bonus payment will be paid to native English teachers
when said NETs leave Korea for good.
c. the re-signing two week leave period will be reduced to one week from
the current two weeks.
These changes may be necessary belt-tighting in these worsing economic times. The economic growth of South Korea is the worst its been since 2009. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| If the economy slows down the first thing that gets cut is public funding to education programs aimed at bringing in foreign educators because that will be seen as a luxury...too bad. |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:59 am Post subject: |
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| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| If the economy slows down the first thing that gets cut is public funding to education programs aimed at bringing in foreign educators because that will be seen as a luxury...too bad. |
bye-bye basket weavers! |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:10 am Post subject: |
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| Dodge7 wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| If the economy slows down the first thing that gets cut is public funding to education programs aimed at bringing in foreign educators because that will be seen as a luxury...too bad. |
bye-bye basket weavers! |
Enjoy having Korea all to yourself, Dodge, we know how much you love it. |
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iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:31 am Post subject: |
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There is a presidential election this year. I haven't been reading the Korean news, so I don't know which party is in the lead. I would expect the opposition.
I'd also expect a rollback in NSETs even if the same party wins: The current president spearheaded the campaign to have a native spearker in every school. The top guy who wanted it, and had the power to push it forward despite considerable opposition from Korean teachers and others, is going to be gone no matter what. Add to that the tough economic times since the mid-2000s.
If the opposition wins, expect the rollack to be sizable. They didn't like the idea much from the start.
There might be a pushback from the parents and some from people within the current administration who will still be around in the same positions next year. Change is always resisted from somewhere.
It will be interesting to see what happens. The public school jobs did much to stabilize and clean up Korea's ESL industry... |
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iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:47 am Post subject: |
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Despite the fact that the average NSET has no teaching experience, and despite the limitations in how the average is used, which retards how much they gain from the experience of teaching in Korean schools, I do think the push to have one in every school has improved the general level of English skill in Korea.
I did Korea is 2 stints: 1996-2000 and then again in 2009-2012. It is hard to gauge how much, but there was a noticable difference in how many people were confident enough and able to use English - even if beginning level broken English.
Korean teachers are teachers with training and experience, but by and large, they refuse to teach English in English. Without the NSETs, the average Korean student will go back to hearing Korean 90%+ of the time in class. The amount of contact hours the students have with English will plummet. And the overall, general English ability in Korea will begin to slip back... |
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comm
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Dodge7 wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| If the economy slows down the first thing that gets cut is public funding to education programs aimed at bringing in foreign educators because that will be seen as a luxury...too bad. |
bye-bye basket weavers! |
Enjoy having Korea all to yourself, Dodge, we know how much you love it. |
lol
Seriously though, when you reduce pay/benefits of a job, you can't really expect to increase the quality of the applicants.
It's particularly interesting that they're cutting the re-signing bonus vacation. First, I thought there would be plenty of time between summer and winter vacation for a total of 6 weeks of vacation to not really harm student learning... so why not make it 2 weeks? And more importantly, cutting the vacation week doesn't reduce the cost of the NET in any way... It just reduces the incentive for an experienced (at least 1 yr) teacher who already knows the students to stick around. Pretty ridiculous.
And the worst part is that the change to the NEAT test is going to require even more English conversation ability than in the past. Families that can't afford English hogwans are pretty well screwed. |
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iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 5:05 am Post subject: |
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| And why reduce the vacation time when so much of school holidays involves sitting alone in a chair all day? |
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comm
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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| iggyb wrote: |
| And why reduce the vacation time when so much of school holidays involves sitting alone in a chair all day? |
The only answer I can think of is that reducing re-signing bonus vacation will reduce the number of experienced teachers and thereby save them the cost of increased pay grade.
:Koreanlogic: |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:08 pm Post subject: Re: changes under EPIK |
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| alphalfa wrote: |
It appears there will be some upcoming changes to the EPIK program.
The changes appear to be |
| Quote: |
| c. the re-signing two week leave period will be reduced to one week from the current two weeks. |
Want to know about the re-signing vacation for signing again in Busan? The re-contracting two weeks were changed from previous contracts to "must be taken in the first six months of the new contract." Care to guess how that worked out? Let me give you a hint. That's one of the biggest reasons I walked out of the job when it came to a head last month on actually taking the damn vacation time. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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| iggyb wrote: |
| And why reduce the vacation time when so much of school holidays involves sitting alone in a chair all day? |
With Saturday classes cut, they lengthened the school year to compensate, which shortens summer vacation. This year I am going on vacation the day school closes, staying on vacation until the day school opens again, and still will not have used my full four weeks, because there simply is not time with the reduced vacations. Even with only three weeks, there would barely be time for a few-day-long summer camp if a school wanted to have one.
I do not think anyone is too happy about this change, but it does make sense. |
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yfb
Joined: 29 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| I hope this pushes those desperate 22 year old economic refugees to the hagwons and let those with experience teach where it matters. |
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iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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| I was allowed to do more teaching in hakwons than in my 10-20 minutes in public school. |
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comm
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 12:48 am Post subject: |
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| yfb wrote: |
| I hope this pushes those desperate 22 year old economic refugees to the hagwons and let those with experience teach where it matters. |
Said the guy who's spending several weeks doing nothing at his desk while private school teachers are still instructing students.
Do you really think that the 80 or 120 minutes per month that you teach a given student (because your class is constantly being cancelled for testing, presentations, or anything else that comes up) is more effective than the 80 or 120 minutes per week that that student spends with a private teacher? |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Dodge7 wrote: |
| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
| If the economy slows down the first thing that gets cut is public funding to education programs aimed at bringing in foreign educators because that will be seen as a luxury...too bad. |
bye-bye basket weavers! |
Enjoy having Korea all to yourself, Dodge, we know how much you love it. |
Hey, I'm going to be here for the next 10 years anyway in some capacity so it doesn't matter to me. At least I am here doing what I went to college for and even should I go back and pursue a job in my field there won't be any gap years--all related, baby! Now what are you going to tell your next prospective accountant/business/construction/every-other-job-under-the-sun employer in your interview? "I was chillin in Korean teaching ESL for the last 7 years, but trust me, my heart is in my given profession..."
NOPE. I hope not.
Every year you stay here, the harder it'll be to convince your prospective employer to hire you over the fresh newbie straight out of college. Teaching ESL is a joke, an extension of paid party time in college, and employers in the US know that. It doesn't earn you any points if your profession is anything other than teaching. It will count against you. |
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