By Kang Shin-who Staff Reporter Education authorities across the country are scrambling to hire more native English-speaking teachers for their schools. But they are paying little attention to building an environment to encourage teachers to stay here longer. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development did announce a set of steps to help establish or support a community or organization for foreign teachers at public schools. However, it has made little headway in doing this so far. ``We are aware of the need for an association for foreign teachers. We can immediately start the plan once we secure a budget for the project,’’ said Kim Chang-eun, the director of English Program in Korea (EPIK), an agency under the ministry. EPIK has the role of selecting and supporting native English-speaking teachers in the school system. On top of the lack of a budget, Kim also cited the absence of a unified recruitment system as a key factor behind the nonexistence of a representative body that will allow foreign teachers’ voices to be heard. There are some moves among teachers at schools and institutes to form such an organization. They say that they need some sort of support from the education authorities. Jason Thomas, the first foreign member of the Korean Teachers & Education Worker’s Union (KTU), said, ``We need the ministry’s help in contacting teachers, for example, an email list for teachers in every province.’’ ``We would also need both an online forum and real world spaces where teachers could come together and work on building a consensus on the association’s goals, and on ways to achieve those goals. If we could get these things, I think we could get started,’’ he added. Japan Sets an Example It’s not easy for foreign teachers to form any kind of representative body or association. But foreign teachers here can get some clues from Japan. Like EPIK in Korea, the country has run the ``Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET)’’ program inviting young foreigners through various channels since 1987. However, unlike in Korea, the international program created an association for the teachers, ``AJET,’’ which is recognized by the government. ``We collect our voices, promote peer support and fellowship, sponsor special projects, assist in the organization of conferences and carry out many activities,’’ Jennifer C. Park, vice chairwoman of the association told The Korea Times. AJET, consisting of 3,777 members out of some 6,000 JET participants, charges no membership fees, instead it operates under the sponsorship it gets from private institutions and various other interest groups, according to Park. It also has a 19-person council elected by the association’s members. Last year, the association raised about 5.7 million yen ($53,000) and spent 6.7 million yen. Additional income was obtained through a publications business. ``Up to this point our expenses have exceeded our income, but the publications sales enable us to break even,’’ said Stephen Legg the AJET treasurer. Most of all, the association is linked with the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, simply known as CLAIR and established in 1988 to promote and provide support for local internationalization. Moreover, the JET program also has an alumni association founded in 1989. Park said the main activities of the association are surveying members and opinion exchanges twice a year; providing new participants with an Information Fair, workshops, and support at orientations; team-teaching resources publishing; providing consulting programs to listen to the difficulties of the members; and running various awards for its members. Reaction From Embassies Embassies in Korea of the countries where most English-teaching foreigners come from said they understand the need to form an association, but there is little they can do about this. The British embassy called attention to the ``Korea Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (KOTESOL)’’ and online communities of foreign teachers as possible starts to forming an association. However, KOTESOL President, Phil Owen said the group is an academic organization for professional teachers not for assistant teachers. As such, it focuses on pedagogical matters rather than terms and conditions for teachers. Also, the online communities have limits as they are just for information sharing and cannot influence the education authorities or do anything about terms and conditions, or legal representation. In response to The Korea Times report on Monday, a New Zealand teacher told the paper that he has worked to form an association or union for foreign teachers online from the beginning of this month at www.nestukorea.wordpress.com in cooperation with the KTU. Also, Soleiman Dias, president of the International Professional Association in Education Korea Chapter, introduced his group. ``We have found it extremely hard to communicate with government officials and the media in general. In fact, we have tried to make our association more active and part of the KFTA, but there has been no response so far, and only last year were we able to set up a meeting with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education,’’ he said. `` We also hope things will change with the new administration so that we can fully represent professional teachers and let our voices be heard,’’ Dias added. kswho@koreatimes.co.kr