Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alphalfa]

Learning English here is a huge industry, to state an obvious fact. The need for native English speaking instructors has been brought up in the media (TV and print) such that a recruiting effort is underway to have such instructors in many (or all) public elementry schools starting in 2008.

What is your take on the recruiting efforts by SMOE and the Incheon Department of Education to getting instructors?

Those of you who have been and perhaps still are in the GEPIK/EPIK do not have good things to say about these programs and many of you have said you will not(or did not) re-sign this year. I can read about what many of you have to say about GEPIK/EPIK on this forum , but I'd like to know what options there are for certified teachers to teach in SEOUL or INCHEON. Hagwons are money-driven as we all know and are for the most part not focused on education. University English programs have their problems too - "toe-the-line" politics, curriculum just to mention a couple. Public schools or should I say the management overseeing the English programs just don't get it - teachers are the last link in the chain in terms of being informed of things but they are an important link to ensuring the chain remains intact .'Pimping us out' and have us do things for free is total nonsense. The respect-factor is totally lost on them.

So, in this kind of working environment how do both the SMOE and The Incheon Education Office expect to attract competent teachers? Can they and will they?