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esetters21
Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:18 pm Post subject: Public vs. Private? |
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| What seems to be the preference of current/former ESL teachers as to teaching at either a public or a private institution in Korea? Is one better than the other? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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If by 'public' you mean the public school system:
a) large classes (generally)...some as large as 35 or 40
b) dependable payment and benefits
c) more vacation time than a hakwon
Then there are privately owned middle/high schools. Same as above.
Then there are the privately owned hakwons (institutes):
a) small classes
b) horror stories about late/no payment, owners often don't give the required benefits like health insurance. (Some hakwons are fine. Many are not.)
c) short vacation time (10 days a year?)
My sense of the current attitude of posters here is that the majority prefer the public schools. |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
My sense of the current attitude of posters here is that the majority prefer the public schools. |
Actually these days most public schools aren't offering more than two weeks vacation which is the smae as most hagwons.
I know of a few cases of schools making mysterious end of contract deductions for various things, so I think that this trend of foreigners being ripped off by their employers is starting to creep into the public system.
Furthermore you also have to deal with the idiots at the education office. Even if you are employed independtly of them, it seems there tentacles are out there. I'm starting to get ridiclous requests for paperwork, lesson plans for the rest of the year and two freaking open classes a year. At least with a wonjangnim, you know they are purely motiviated by money. The officals you are dealing with all have their own (sometimes conflicting) agendas. |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
If by 'public' you mean the public school system:
a) large classes (generally)...some as large as 35 or 40
b) dependable payment and benefits
c) more vacation time than a hakwon
Then there are privately owned middle/high schools. Same as above.
Then there are the privately owned hakwons (institutes):
a) small classes
b) horror stories about late/no payment, owners often don't give the required benefits like health insurance. (Some hakwons are fine. Many are not.)
c) short vacation time (10 days a year?)
My sense of the current attitude of posters here is that the majority prefer the public schools. |
Some private schools have class sizes ranging from 6 people to 18 people per class. It really depends on if you are an immersion teacher or not. |
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Thunndarr
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Actually these days most public schools aren't offering more than two weeks vacation which is the smae as most hagwons. |
What I have witnessed is that while the contractual vacation may be the same, you are more likely to actually receive it at a public school, and with any kind of luck, you'll get more than what is in your contract. By contrast, in my experience, you'll be lucky to get half of your contractual vacation at a hagwon, and it won't be in chunks large enough to be useful, rather, you'll get a day here or there throughout the year. Of course, your mileage may vary. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| crazylemongirl wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
My sense of the current attitude of posters here is that the majority prefer the public schools. |
Actually these days most public schools aren't offering more than two weeks vacation which is the smae as most hagwons.
I know of a few cases of schools making mysterious end of contract deductions for various things, so I think that this trend of foreigners being ripped off by their employers is starting to creep into the public system.
Furthermore you also have to deal with the idiots at the education office. Even if you are employed independtly of them, it seems there tentacles are out there. I'm starting to get ridiclous requests for paperwork, lesson plans for the rest of the year and two freaking open classes a year. At least with a wonjangnim, you know they are purely motiviated by money. The officals you are dealing with all have their own (sometimes conflicting) agendas. |
Geez, everytime I read your posts they seem stupider and stupider.
As someone said, at a public school you will get more than whats officially in the contract. At a hagwon you are more lilely to get cheated out of whatever is in the contract. But if you prefer a wonjangnim who was a truck driver in his previous career, then go ahead, work for such a bozo. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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There is one more scenario - public school after programmes that are not run by the school but are outsourced to *educational companies*. I am working at one. I like it. Classes are small - max 12 kids. We have autonomy to do pretty much whatever we want with our lessons. We only teach 4 classes a day, with each class being 50 mins long. Working hours are 11-5, they pay you to prep! The only downside is the lack of holidays - only 1 week in winter and 1 in summer but the contract says that we can take unpaid leave.
mmm.. that's all I can think of for now... |
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Zark
Joined: 12 May 2003
Location: Phuket, Thailand: Look into my eyes . . .
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| At the college/university level - I think I was paid better and treated better and received better benefits than friends who worked at gov't universities. |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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| jinju wrote: |
Geez, everytime I read your posts they seem stupider and stupider. |
Perhaps you should stop whatever it is you're doing to lower your IQ?
| Quote: |
| As someone said, at a public school you will get more than whats officially in the contract. |
Ok I shouldn't have said most. But a lot of the schools in my area are really cracking down on schools offering more vacation time than what's in the contract. I know of one school that got fined for doing so.
They are clamping down on this so to say you WILL get more than whats offically in the contract is just not correct. The trend is towards 2 weeks and the ones offering more are drying up in Seoul/Gyeonggi Do.
You MIGHT depending on what your principal/education office area is like. Do a search for all the posts complaining about once sweet public school deals, where the education office has come and demanded that the foreign teacher get no more than two weeks. There were plenty of them last year.
I know of one teacher that had her contract voided by the education office because it guranteed more than 2 weeks. I also know of a few more who were forced to come and sit in an empty school during the winter because of this rule.
| Quote: |
| At a hagwon you are more lilely to get cheated out of whatever is in th econtract. But if you prefer a wonjangnim who was a truck driver in his previous career, then go ahead, work for such a bozo. |
I'm not saying that all public jobs are terrible, but there seems to be a trend towards ripping people off creeping in the public system too. Of the five teachers that I knew that left my area recently, four have been ripped off. This isn't isolated, look at the write ups on EPIK from EFL-Law.
I'm not saying that Hagwons are better, I'm saying that all the public schools aren't all the Milk and Honey that some Dave's posters make them out to be. I myself am lucky to have stumbled onto a good gig which I got through my reputation. However, the local education office is making it hard for them to keep it that way. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:42 pm Post subject: |
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Bear in mind that some middle and high schools are, for official purposes, 'private' (directed partly by a private board), but are really no different from public schools when it comes to teaching. Then there are unigwan jobs that are partly private gigs. The terminology can be a bit confusing.
Instead of public vs. private I'd suggest thinking of it in terms of:
a. hogwan
b. elementary / middle / high school
c. uni / college
d. unigwan
e. after school job at an elementary public school
f. adult academy / business school
g. company job
Each has it's ups and downs. Which is best for you depends a lot on hours, what ages you like to teach, and class size. |
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esetters21
Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| I prefer to stay away from kindy aged students, as I have had contact with this age group in the US (although I was not their teacher). I did have to teach them for short periods of time during the week. Hours worked is another thing...I worked in corporate America and got dumped on for several years with too many hours and too little respect. This is what drew me to teaching in the first place. |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 1:17 am Post subject: |
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| check my previous post Here |
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