By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it plans to establish a system to ensure that all Korean English teachers can conduct English-only classes by 2012 from the current 58 percent.

Under the plan, the education office governing all elementary and secondary schools in the city will introduce a Teaching English in English (TEE) Certificate for English teachers beginning in the fall semester. The city currently has 4,678 English teachers at secondary schools and 3,800 at elementary schools.

``We will issue the certificate to teachers who are able to conduct classes in English and continue to encourage more and more teachers to acquire the certificate,’’ said Yoon Ho-sang, senior supervisor at the education office. ``Those who hold the certificate can get incentives in personnel placement.’’

Yoon said the TEE system will help boost parents’ trust in public education and reduce private education costs.

There are two types of TEE certificates; TEE-Ace and TEE-Master. To obtain TEE-Ace, teachers should have more than three years experience and a minimum of 30 TEE training points.

They are also required to pass the level 2 Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) and Teaching Practice Test (TPT), developed by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.

Teachers are eligible for the TEE-Master certificate once they have seven years experience and a minimum of 80 TEE training points. They must also pass the level 3 TKT and TPT and complete an intensive two-week training program.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr