Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wonkavite62]

SMOE has drastically cut back the number of foreign teachers in public schools in Seoul. Hence, many people who were accepted by EPIK, GEPIK or some other programme would not get into Seoul (myself included).
Do you wonder what SMOE would be like as an employer? This YouTube video might give a slight hint:
FAQ in SMOE (Public School Teachers in Seoul).

Check out this YouTube video and say what you think of it.

[OBwannabe]

Link is missing.

[maximmm]

I think he is referring to this video - from last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfqun0W9Xog

I think this video was made for people who have never worked in the public school system. Some of the advice... like attending school events on Saturday, I disagree with.

When I started out working in Korea (a rather long time ago), Korean public school teachers had to go to school on Saturdays for half a day workdays twice or three times a month. Since we didn't have to do it, some Korean teachers felt that this was unfair and I do understand why. I'm glad that the mandatory Saturday policy was removed years ago. Still, it's not uncommon for schools to schedule other events, such as a 2-day hiking trip over a holiday, or on a weekend. Korean teachers have to attend these, unless they have a big reason (they are dying or are being 'asked' to partake in some sort of seminar on that day by the MOE).

I think this is wrong - teachers should be able to choose how they spend their weekends - unless it's some sort of an emergency. As such,
recommending that waygooks attend these to score some points, is likely to encourage schools to carry on with this horrible practice.

It's kind of like saying that it's not a bad thing to work from 8 am till 8 PM without overtime pay because you may score some points with your employer. Let's keep in mind that this practice of people working without overtime in Korea is still very much alive and thriving (in various companies). Until people start speaking out against it, it will never change.

Let's not encourage horrible practices by partaking in them.

[wonkavite62]

Well if you were working on Saturdays I hope it was not too often! What slightly surprised from the video was that a teacher at SMOE needed to go to the bank for 20 minutes and so the co-teacher took that out of his holiday entitlement! It does seem kind of petty. So if you need to open a bank account, get a mobile phone and pay bills at the start of your contract, you would lose a couple of holidays.
I never had this issue in my public school position.#
##By the way, I didn't include a link with my message. Just the title of the video.