TO prevent students from attending private institutes after school hours, the South Korean government and schools have been increasingly putting pressure on English teachers, the JoongAng Daily has reported.
South Korean households spend a huge portion of their income on private English-language education. The move to ease parents’ economic burden and to improve public education was spurred on by the Lee Myung-bak administration.
Starting this year, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has begun running 12 types of domestic and overseas courses to train English teachers. It has allocated 6.3 billion won ($5.1 million) for the programs, up 1.8 billion won ($1.4 million) from last year. But tensions are building among teachers since the education office launched its "Teaching English in English" system, giving out certificates at several levels to teachers who have their skills tested. All teachers in Seoul will have to take the test by 2012, according to the education office. Teachers who are elderly or not fluent in spoken English are under even greater stress. Some have been considering changing the subject they teach, while others try to improve their English skills on the Internet at home.
"Teachers are now forced to study. The situation was different in the past," Yoon Yeon-mo, a 50-year-old female English teacher at Sorabol High School in Seoul, said. Yoon has been taking a course to improve her English proficiency since July. "Elderly teachers who have weak conversational skills find it uncomfortable to be taught in the same classroom with youngsters," she added.
Some teachers say the new system could cause unexpected side effects. "Teaching English only in English is not necessarily desirable," said Yoo Ji-hyung, a 51-year-old teacher at Dongduk Girls’ High School. "Students may find it even more difficult to acquire the language."
