Rep. Lee Gun-hyeon,
Grand National Party |
ATEK Refutes Lawmaker’s Survey on the Rate of Crimes by Foreign Instructors
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
A group of native English teachers is criticizing a lawmaker over his statement that crimes committed by foreign teachers are "at a serious level."
Rep. Lee Gun-hyeon of the Grand National Party recently published statistics from the National Police Agency involving crimes by foreign English teachers.
Lee stressed that these crimes have emerged as a social issue, escalating the anxiety of students and parents, who are calling for a stricter verification system to root out unqualified teaching candidates.
Lee also suggested criminal information should be made public to ensure students are not exposed to additional crimes.
The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) countered the lawmaker's claim. Dann Gaymer, communications director of the association, told The Korea Times Thursday that Lee's comments don't make sense and that they are making foreign English teachers look like the "enemy."
Dann Gaymer,
ATEK Communications Director |
According to Rep. Lee, the number of crimes committed by E-2 or foreign language teaching visa holders stood at 274 over the past three years with 114 arrests in 2007, 99 in 2008, and 61 in the first eight months of 2009.
In a press release, ATEK maintained that the statistics do not justify the claim that teacher crime is at a serious level, given that in 2008 there were 19,771 foreigners registered on E-2 visas.
"We find Rep. Lee's accusation very troubling. As we are an association of foreign teachers in Korea, any accusation against the foreign teacher community is an attack against our members by default," said ATEK president Greg Dolezal, adding the foreign English teacher crime rate of 0.64 percent was more than five times less than the 3.5 percent among Koreans in 2007 and half the rate of other foreigners.
Regarding the complaints by the native English speakers, Hong Seok-in, chief staff of Rep. Lee's office said the lawmaker focused on the kinds of crimes rather the frequency when he used the word "serious." "There are various sorts of crimes. Especially, using drugs and committing sexual violations at schools are very serious compared to other simple crimes," Hong said.
A director from the Seoul Immigration Office said there are also many criminal cases that are not recorded in the data. He said one foreign English teacher was caught having sex with a minor but was not prosecuted as the minor did not want to press the case.
The ATEK communication director made it clear they will firmly deal with any vilification of them. "We cannot apologize or make excuses for foreign teachers who do commit crimes. There are 19,000 who have not committed crimes and we are speaking up in their defense," Gaymer said.
ATEK filed a complaint early this year with the Korean Press Ethics Commission, protesting negative articles in the Korean media about foreign English teachers.
ATEK was officially established in March to promote the interests of the some 25,000 English instructors here. ATEK is the only organization of its kind in Korea. Teachers can join by visiting its Web site.
kswho@koreatimes.co.kr
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한국과 일본 국가부도위험 비슷해졌다
