Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Samantha]

I'm looking at switching over to a Public school full time. I looked at the salary breakdown allowances published by the city. There is a 1.3 mil allowance for a computer. I don't need this allowance as I have a personal laptop that's less than 6 months old. Since I don't need/want to buy another computer, my question is can I use this money for other things? Will it be given to me for my use or does the school keep the money and only reimburses me up to 1.3mil if I bought a comp?

I'm a little confused.

[d-rail]

i think that means that whe school has up to 1.3 million to spend on a computer (or sometimes technology supplies) or repair of an existing computer for you initially. i dont think they would give t to you and say "here, go buy a computer." i have been in a few public schools and i was never given an allowance to buy a computer. i think those are guidelines for the school.

[Samantha]

I wasn't sure either. Has anyone taken the allowence but not used it all? My new comp was only 900K. Is there a way to shuffle the extra money into other areas/allowances?

[d-rail]

no, what i meant was that the allowance is for the school, not the foreign teacher. you will probably never see that money. i dont know what type of school you are in, but from my experience, the foreign teacher in an elementary school sometimes has a budget each month for teaching materials. (i think in Gangnam it is 100,000, but i cant remember exactly) both middle schools i was at there was no set budget that the schools told me of. if i needed something someone weould fill out paperwork and the money would come from some budget, and the hs i was at was the same as ms. i doubt you will ever see that money. and no, butgeted money cannot be shuffled, or unused funds go to the teachers pocket. its most likely a regulation set up for the school to give you the materials you need (not the cash), not for the teacher to go out and buy a new comp at his/her discretion. just speaking from experience. if i'm wrong, bonus for you.

[Samantha]

Shoot ....One can hope. Ah well, I guess the school is going to have excess funds since I have no use for a new computer, that 1.3 mil is going to go back into the system somehow.

Thanks for helping.

[cruisemonkey]

It was nice, wishful thinking but you you will never see the 1.3 million. It's part of the lump sum payment your school will get for having you as a foreign English teacher. If you tell them you don't need a computer, I'm sure the 1.3 will just end up in the samyupsal/soju 'slush fund' - enjoy!

[yeremy]

This seems generally to be a budget and political issue in the elementary schools. This is my third year at the same elementary school, but last week a ten year old, school supplied laptop bit the dust. I told my co-teacher and waited and waited for a couple of days until yesterday I sought out a friend of mine, a Korean homeroom teacher who had been the computer wonk for our elementary school last year. He told me that there weren't any free computers in our school. So I asked him to help me connect my laptop to the school internet and he did. Now I can research things on-line again for my lesson planning and communicate by e-mail with my colleagues and supervisors.
Why is this a political issue? I think it is because it is the principal, who is generally out to make themselves look good, who make a budget and divvy out the money every year. Once a year, apparently, the bank opens and a school can spend on upgrades, etc. It does seem to be true that some schools have more money than others for their English programs but I think this is due to how that principal views English education.
There also seems to be little oversight as to how a principal spends the money they receive. My former principal, before she retired, was a baduk maniac and that is where she spent a lot of money. I have wondered at times, off an on, whether some of the money budgeted and provided by my city for my school's English education was not hijacked for my school's paduk program. I guess that I will never know.
I would suggest that you try to get your school to supply you with a computer, as they are probably supposed to. If you hook your laptop up to your school's internet, the person who helps you may also install the web guard for your local MOE, which will prevent you from freely opening any weblink you wish. You may want to keep that in mind. I opted not to install the web block from the local MOE simply because it's my lapttop and I do not go to questionable sites, especially on a work-related computer. I hope this helps. This is a very good topic.

[spliff]

My PS bought me a computer for my apt. It even has four cores and two of those funky graphics card thingamajigs for gaming...

[mrsquirrel]

^ He ain't lying.

I've seen it amongst all the other shiite that he has bought from the Buy and Sell section.

i think it was in the corner with 3 slow cookers, 2 blenders and a couple of LCD TV's

[bassexpander]

If you get the opportunity to purchase a computer, whether for your home use while working there, or at the office -- USE IT! If you don't that allowance will disappear the next.

My lady always talks about the crazy construction projects that crop-up around Seoul near the end of the year. For example, they are replacing all of the bricks on the sidewalks near here, and they just replaced all of them last year. She said they probably had to use up some funding, because if they didn't it wouldn't be there the next year.

[marlow]

[spliff]

[marlow]