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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:17 pm Post subject: Hiring of Foreign Teachers to Be Centralized |
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http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200701/kt2007010719433210510.htm
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The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development said yesterday it will establish a special team to recruit native-speaking English teachers for Korean schools.
The team, which will start work in July, will manage the recruiting and job-posting of 400 foreign English teachers at elementary, middle and high schools by the end of the year, ministry officials said.
It also plans to create a personnel pool of foreign teachers and come up with a standard training system for them.
The measure is aimed at solving the problems of some foreigners teaching in Korea. According to the ministry, 62 foreign teachers in 2005 and 65 in 2006 broke their contracts with schools and went back to their countries in mid semester.
Reasons included getting married, finding other jobs, becoming seriously ill or not being able to adjust to life in Korea.
By breaking their contracts, the teachers disrupted the education of students, and caused concern about how foreign teachers were managed. Currently, several routes exist for recruiting foreign personnel _ the English Program in Korea (EPIK) of Korea National University of Education KNUE), regional education offices, local governments and schools.
The government will take control of the EPIK system from the university and manage it. The National Institute for International Education Development, affiliated with the ministry, will take charge of the team.
The personnel pool should make qualified teachers available to each class. The team will also recruit qualified teachers by sending invitations to foreign universities and education offices, or holding job opening interviews abroad.
Currently, the embassies of six English-speaking countries such as the United States, Britain and Canada receive applications and send them to each educational office or school.
The pool will be organized by collecting information on 1,909 foreigners teaching in Korea, and listing their speaking skills, personal data, and noticeable points in their pronunciation.
The ministry will also join with the Ministry of Justice and add the personal data of those coming to Korea with an E-2 visa, the visa for teaching in the country.
By using the pool, the ministry expects to increase the number of new employees by up to 400, double last year�s number.
The ministry also said it will seek ways to avoid giving retirement pay to those who break their contracts, and focus more on teacher training.
Currently, more than 1,909 native English speaking teachers work in Korea in the education system. Of them, 737 are from Canada, 684 from the United States, 140 from New Zealand, 133 from Australia, 131 from Britain, 34 from Ireland and 32 from South Africa. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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I don't like the tone of that article.
All the usual one-sided, flawed reporting  |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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| It doesn't say much about GEPIK, ETIS or SMOE. IF they are going to centralize, take the whole whack. It think it would be a step in the right direction. EPIK has done a crap job. Nobody, well very few, actually knows what city they will be teaching in until 5 days before their contract begins. I think most people that do runners in EPIK are placed in small towns with little or no support group. |
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fiveeagles
Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: Vancouver
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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Does this mean that the public schools won't use recruiters anymore?
Last edited by fiveeagles on Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:46 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| If this means that you can't choose where you will work..then its bye bye public schools and back to hogwons. |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| fiveeagles wrote: |
| Does this mean that the public schools won't use recruiters anymore? |
They will always use recruiters because they NEED to. Everytime someone breaks a contract EPIk has to find a replacement. And at the begining of both hiring sessions, they never have achieved their quota. |
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rothkowitz
Joined: 27 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't much care for it either,though I don't think the style of reporting had that much to do with it.
What's with the collection of "speaking skills...and noticeable points of their pronunciation"??
Who's going to collate that and what would it mean to them?
Further,how on earth would that increase the number of teachers here?
If they want to increase and improve(assuming both things can be done at the same time) they need to look at more salient issues
-increasing teacher-student contact time.One minute per student per week is related to nothing
-teaching outcomes
-pay and conditions(you're still financially better off babysitting in hagwons)
-actual understanding of qualifications
-not making teachers sit at a desk all summer/winter for no good reason |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| If this means that you can't choose where you will work..then its bye bye public schools and back to hogwons. |
They will most likely ask where you want to work, but take it from me, that seldom materializes. |
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rothkowitz
Joined: 27 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| It doesn't say much about GEPIK, ETIS or SMOE. IF they are going to centralize, take the whole whack. It think it would be a step in the right direction. EPIK has done a crap job. Nobody, well very few, actually knows what city they will be teaching in until 5 days before their contract begins. I think most people that do runners in EPIK are placed in small towns with little or no support group. |
Yep.Take that freedom(of location) away from people and don't be surprised if they don't want to stay. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Nothing will change anyway. Due to supply and demand we'll still be able to do what we want. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| nautilus wrote: |
| If this means that you can't choose where you will work..then its bye bye public schools and back to hogwons. |
They will most likely ask where you want to work, but take it from me, that seldom materializes. |
Generally speaking if you want to work in a rural area you will be able to. 99% of people want to work in Seoul or a big city and that's why it "seldom materializes." |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:23 pm Post subject: Re: Hiring of Foreign Teachers to Be Centralized |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
(1) Reasons included getting married, finding other jobs, becoming seriously ill or not being able to adjust to life in Korea.
(2) The personnel pool should make qualified teachers available to each class. The team will also recruit qualified teachers by sending invitations to foreign universities and education offices, or holding job opening interviews abroad.
(3) The pool will be organized by collecting information on 1,909 foreigners teaching in Korea, and listing their speaking skills, personal data, and noticeable points in their pronunciation.
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[/quote]
(numbers are mine)
1. Notice how they listed certain reasons but gave NO solutions?
2. "qualified". What does this mean exactly? Are they going to try to get teachers who have a teaching degree? Not for 2.2 they aren't.
3. "personal data"? Hmm....they can ask questions but I'll decide what I will answer. And how are they going to grade "speaking skills and pronunciation"
Most likely it will turn out to be some sort of nonsense like the degree verification thing. That's my prediction on this. |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| nautilus wrote: |
| If this means that you can't choose where you will work..then its bye bye public schools and back to hogwons. |
They will most likely ask where you want to work, but take it from me, that seldom materializes. |
Generally speaking if you want to work in a rural area you will be able to. 99% of people want to work in Seoul or a big city and that's why it "seldom materializes." |
I agree. However, at the same time they will mislead you into thinking you have a very good chance of your placement request and then drop the bomb after you've gone through the entiring hiring process. I know several people who have asked for a not so big city because of wives, griflriends and what not . They were constatly missled right up to the day the POE came in to meet them and say that is is simply not possible. |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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JET runs a similar programme centralized system but turns people away. EPIK has repeatedly splintered off but has trouble recuriting people.
I also think this means that we will be stuck moving schools like the Korean teachers which would suck. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Being able to choose what city you want to work in is part of living happily in Korea, IMO. It's not all about THE JOB, but getting a change of scenery every year. And there are places/cities I'd avoid at all costs. |
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