Can Seouls New English Village Stay Afloat?
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Most English immersion villages are running deep in the red, with fewer students enrolling in classes at them.
Against this dismal background, Seoul City Hall is opening its third English village. Its existing two are making ends meet thanks to a city contract to have schools send their students to them in large numbers.
Despite Seoul being optimistic on their future prospects, it is uncertain whether the latest village can turn a profit or whether Seoul is creating another behemoth that will siphon off the city budget. After all, it is the city’s subsidies that are keeping the two current sites going.
The new village is located in Gwanak, southern Seoul, and will be set up as infrastructure for lifelong English study.
Seoul Pugnap English Village in eastern Seoul was established in 2004, while and Suyu Village in northern Seoul was founded in 2006. Both campuses can accommodate 450 students. Unlike the two existing boarding-style English villages, the one in Gwanak will see students commute to reduce the costs.
“The occupancy rate of both current villages is around 80 percent. Most of them are groups from schools or kindergartens,” said a city official in charge of them. “At first, we received mostly individual students, but there were snags in the schedule as they behaved separately.”
There are more than 30 English immersion villages, operated by local governments, but most of them are losing money. The two Seoul villages turned a profit in 2008, but the Pungnap went into the red in 2009.
Other English villages are also struggling to survive. Paju English Village in Gyeonggi Province, one of the nation’s largest, plans to run a “global leader” program later this year to escape from deficit. It is a project to teach U.S. high school courses to middle school graduates from low-income families. However, civic groups oppose the idea, claiming it would become another form of international high school.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, English villages across the country lost 21 billion won in 2007. Data from 2008 was unavailable
Experts say the government needs to conduct thorough research before they build the special-purpose villages.
“Local English villages are suffering because municipal governments invested in them competitively without conducting appropriate research on demand, location and scale,” said Lee Byung-min, an English education professor at Seoul National University.
“Seoul villages are making profits as they are receiving students from schools and are included in courses as part of the elementary school curriculum.”
Seoul City provides subsidies to schools that want to participate in the English villages. “When I send out application forms to local schools, students and parents show positive responses. There are still many students who cannot afford to go abroad to learn English,” the city official said. It also supports children from low-income brackets who want to go to the English villages.
“Though the programs at English villages might be inadequate at the moment, the satisfaction of participants is relatively high,” she said. “Some of my friends send their children overseas for a month during vacation and it costs some 5 million won, but the English camps in Seoul are priced at around 800,000 for two weeks.”
According to a survey by Professor Lee, 83 percent of students who participated in the five-day program were satisfied and 76 percent of them thought the course was helpful for their school English classes.
Seoul City added that if operated properly, the English villages can be a good alternative to overseas training courses, preventing an outflow of cash.
“Moreover, the city revised an ordinance earlier in March to allow adults to apply for the English villages, and civil servants will also be trained there,” she said.
`관악 영어마을’ 제대로 굴러갈까?
국내 영어마을이 방문객 급감으로 고사 위기를 맞고 있는 가운데 서울시가 세 번째 영어마을을 개장하기로 해 논란을 빚고 있다.
서울시는 영어마을의 전망에 대해 낙관하고 있지만 새 영어마을이 수익성을 확보할 수 있을지에 대해 우려가 높아지고 있다.
새 영어마을은 29일 관악구에서 문을 열었는데, 평생 영어학습을 위한 기반시설로 건립됐다. 이에 앞서 2004년에는 풍납동에 영어마을이 문을 열었고, 2006년에는 수유동에 두 번째 영어캠프가 건립됐다.
관악 영어마을은 앞의 두 캠프와는 달리 비용 부담을 줄이기 위해 학생들이 통학할 수 있도록 돼 있다.