MORE than half of South Korean teachers of English oppose the South Korean government’s plan to recruit 23,000 “Teaching English in English (TEE)’’ teachers, mostly native speakers, to lead classes in English in elementary, middle and high schools over the next five years, The Korea Herald has reported.

According to a recent survey of 425 South Korean teachers of English by the South Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations, 57 percent said hiring TEE teachers was unnecessary. As for the reasons for their disapproval, 45.5 percent chose “possible recruitment and dispatch of unqualified teachers” while another 21.2 percent said “incumbent teachers have enough capabilities to teach English in English”.

As for the degree of English usage in class, two out of five respondents picked between 25 and 50 percent, 34 percent chose less than 25 percent, while about 23 percent said they used English more than Korean.

In response to a question asking what is most required to help teachers teach in English, 29 percent picked the need for a variety of training opportunities. Nearly half of the respondents said the current training programs were insufficient.

The teachers’ desire for more training was met with a timely announcement by the South Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology that it will increase the investment in public English education by 12.2 billion won ($8.8 million) to 19.5 billion ($14 million) won next year. The increased budget will be spent on financing the development of educational materials, improvement of facilities, recruitment of professionals and the evaluation of students’ speaking or writing skills.