ENGLISH classes offered in the South Korean capital’s public elementary, middle and high schools will be taught in English starting in 2012, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the JoongAng Daily has reported.
With the new School-Managed Innovation of Learning English (SMILE) project, the education office wants to upgrade English education by offering English immersion classes, holding training sessions for South Korean English teachers, and hiring more native English-speaking teachers or conversational English teachers. A total of 1,248 Seoul public schools will benefit from the plan according to the office. It hopes such moves will cut the amount of money spent on private instruction by allowing students to become fluent in English through classes at public schools.
Currently only 40 percent of elementary schools, 23 percent of middle schools and 17 percent of high schools in the city conduct English classes in English. According to an education office survey last year, only 60 percent of public school English teachers said they could conduct classes in English. The education office hopes to raise the figure to 100 percent with the language training,
By 2012, Seoul’s 2,500 public school English teachers will take three to six months of training either in foreign countries or in South Korea to improve their English speaking skills. And all high schools will have at least one native English-speaking teacher.
Beginning in 2011, all middle and high schools in the city will be required to adopt a performance-based English class system where students at the same levels are placed in the same class.
Oh Seok-hwan, the Education Ministry official in charge of English education enhancement, said the education office’s announcement meets one of the Lee Myung-bak administration’s major public education goals. Oh said Seoul is the first to start the drive and “the drive will be expanded throughout the country’s public schools.”
