Ahn Byong-man, minister of education, science and technology, talks about his policy on English education during an exclusive interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday, at his office in Seoul. |
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The government is overhauling its plan to recruit 23,000 new assistant English teachers among Koreans who don't have teaching licenses, said the nation's top educator.
To improve English education, the government had planned to give them civil servant positions under 3-5 year renewable contracts. This plan, originally proposed by President Lee Myung-bak's transition team, has met strong resistance from existing teachers.
``We will recruit those who can speak English well for English-only classes, but they will not get civil servant positions due to opposition from teachers and civic groups,'' Education Minister Ahn Byong-man said.
The government now wants to call them English ``lecturers,'' not teachers. They will play a similar role to contract lecturers at colleges.
Previously, the transition team said the government would hire 23,000 fluent English speakers by offering ``public servants'' positions under the 3-5 year renewable contract.
Suggested guidelines for the positions at that time were those who have completed English education courses including the Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificates, obtained master's or higher degrees in English-speaking countries, or have teaching licenses.
Now, it is not certain how many the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology will recruit and what requirements it will ask of the program applicants.
The minister hinted that the number of lecturers for English immersion classes is likely to be shortened.
Regarding concerns on qualifications of native English-speaking teachers, Ahn said 48 percent of them hold English-teaching licenses from their countries and the government is now working on developing better ways to attract more qualified foreign teachers.
``For example, we will continue to expand networking with renowned universities in the United States and U.K., and are now discussing with related ministries about drawing talent from countries where English is used as an official language,'' Ahn said.
Also, the government is working on expanding its role of recruitment of native English speakers. Now its subordinate agency, the National Institute for International Education Development has recruited some 600 foreigners, only 14 percent of foreign teachers at elementary and secondary schools in the nation, but the agency aims to employ up to 1,400 foreign English assistant teachers in 2009.
The government also aims to attract some 100,000 foreign students by 2012 to set up more globalized education environments. The education authorities are devising various programs to draw quality foreign students. The number of foreign students has been increasing to 63,952 this year from 49,270 in 2007.
The number of foreigners under the state scholarship will also rise to 3,000 in 2012 from 2,450 in 2010 and current 1,500. ``We will improve the education environment for foreigners and provide them with accommodation. At the same time, we will support them to land jobs here,'' Ahn said. ``To diversify nationalities, we will expand student exchange programs with more countries.''
He said the government will invite world-renowned scholars to boost competitiveness in Korean universities. For the plan, the ministry has introduced ``World Class University (WCU)'' project to foster global universities by hiring renowned scholars. ``We plan to have at least five Korean universities in the list of top 200 global universities through the project.''
Under the plan, the government will select projects proposed by universities and provide the necessary funding. It plans to allocate a total of 165 billion won for research projects every year over the next five years. With the funds, the selected universities will be able to establish new departments and recruit world famous scholars. The total fund earmarked for the five-year project is 825 billion won.
As for the international middle schools plan in Seoul, which has invited strong opposition from teachers and parents groups, Ahn said those schools are needed for diversity of education. ``It is true that tuition of those specialized schools is expensive compared with ordinary schools and those schools could cause private education costs to increase,'' Ahn said.
``To cover up those flaws, we will introduce admission process that curbs private education costs and give more opportunities to children from low-income bracket.''
The top educator also mentioned that the government will tackle the increasing number of children for overseas studies. ``Early overseas studies have brought a lot of side-effects such as family separation and outflow of foreign currency,'' Ahn said. ``We will offer diverse education environments to satisfy those parents seeking to send their children overseas.'' Some 28,000 children went abroad for studies last year.
kswho@koreatimes.co.kr
Who is Ahn Byeong-man?
Minister Ahn has devoted most of his life to the academic field as a professor and president of universities before becoming education minister.
The 68-year-old minister twice headed Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. During his leadership at the university, Ahn established foreign language high schools and a cyber university.
After the Lee Myung-bak administration was launched this year, he was named one of the likely candidates for Prime Mnister. He has served as chairman of the Presidential Council for Future and Vision and president of the Korea-U.S. education & Culture Foundation.
Having graduated from Seoul National University in public administration, Ahn obtained an M.A. in law from the same university and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida in the United States. He is married to his wife Park Chung-hee, and has a son and a daughter.
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