By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak seeks to attract voluntary ethnic Koreans worldwide as public English teachers here as part of his efforts to secure teachers fluent in English.
In his meeting with transition committee members Thursday, Lee expressed willingness to post Koreans residing in English-speaking countries to primary and secondary schools for a certain period.
``I think many ethnic Koreans will roll their sleeves for their maternal country for about one year,'' he said. ``If we systemize the project, there will be many volunteers.''
Lee added that some Koreans working abroad have already informed the transition team of their willingness to teach here by suspending several months or years away from their jobs.
At private English institutions nationwide, there are many ethnic Korean teachers, such as Korean-Americans and other ethnic Koreans. Some students prefer them to foreign teachers, as they understand Korean culture well and have higher educational backgrounds including master's degrees or doctorates.
``The difference in competitiveness apparently exists between people fluent in English and those unable to speak English,'' he said. ``The difference would lead to the widening of the income gap.''
But Lee showed discomfort over the recent politicizing over the plan to upgrade English proficiency of Koreans. He made the remark as his own Grand National Party was worried about the negative fallout of the ambitious plan in the upcoming general elections on April 19.
Rep. Lee Han-koo of the GNP said ``I think the plan is a step in the right direction but the method and speed of the program is out of tune with the reality.''
He instructed transition committee officials to persuade those opposing the new English education scheme otherwise.
He said ``Unless we change now, we cannot survive. It is our obligation to help our young children learn English now so that they can move throughout the world.''
Chairwoman Lee Kyung-sook of the transition committee said ``Good Morning'' to the President-elect, who jokingly replied that the salute is communicated among students at the first grade of elementary schools.
The 4-trillion-won project envisages all high school graduates attaining a reasonable degree of fluency in spoken and written English.
The team plans to finalize the new scheme in early February, in time for Lee's inauguration on Feb. 25. The team calls for revising English education-related laws to help the new measures fully take effect by 2014.
``The arguments that the English-only English classes will widen income gaps between the haves and have-nots is groundless,'' Chairwoman Lee told the meeting.
She said one of the purposes of the new public English education plan is to reduce income disparity by providing all students with opportunity for practical English classes from elementary school.
The incoming government also plans to introduce a national certificate system called ``Teaching English in English (TEE)'' to produce a sufficient number of teachers to carry out its envisioned plans.
Under the system, those with a TESOL (Teaching English for Speakers of Other Language) certificate or master's degree in an English-speaking country can be interviewed for admission to the training program to become English teachers.
The new government also plans to open up its pocket to train existing English teachers. Up to 1,500 teachers will be selected for a one-year overseas training program annually, and another 1,500 will go through a six-month training at home.