Better Pay for Teachers

By Michael Stevens

The average English teacher today makes just under 22.8 million won a year, which may not look too bad for a twenty something-year-old. However, a qualified teacher will soon realize that one could make more money and not work anywhere near as hard, doing other things. Often they are told they will work short hours and be able to travel and see Korea. However, they quickly find out that early mornings are for students who need extra help, evenings are for lesson plans, breaks between classes are less than 10 minutes and weekends just aren't long enough to prepare for the next week's classes, let alone see the many sites of Korea.

According to the Education Ministry, one in every three teachers leave after the first year, and almost twice as many leave within three. If any other business had a turnover rate this high, something would be done to fix the problem. Education isn't just any business. It's the most important business around. For teachers are the educators of the human race.

Unfortunately, the current fashionable fixes for education fit terribly. Instead of simply acknowledging that starting salaries are woefully low and committing to increasing them, politicians have wasted decades obsessing with finding new ways to attract and hire new teachers, when they really should be trying to figure out how to keep the ones that are already here and have the experience. The ability to teach and be a good teacher isn't like working on an assembly line.

If a product has flaws on the production line, analysts consider all the possible reasons; substandard materials, design flaws, employee fatigue, etc. Teachers receive students from a society with deteriorating moral values, tremendous economic woes, increasing education costs and lowered family values, and the teachers are expected to produce a finished product from these types of raw materials. More sadly, if the product does not meet the government standards, the teacher is at fault.

It seems preposterous that a society complains that this nation is facing economic problems and then elects a president that has business experience. And yet, when speaking of educational matters, no one considers the fact that the president has never taught an English class. The greater truth is that the highest levels of academic authorities have come from administrative ranks and not from the classroom.

And so we have the voice of the inexperienced directing the classroom veterans and kids contaminated by their own society. Korea has a historic tradition of ignoring those who teach and then complaining about the quality of education. We lack logic and common sense. If Korea really wants to improve their educational system, they must retain the good teachers that they have instead of constantly hiring new teachers that have no experience. A college degree is no guarantee that a person has what it takes to teach English, what it takes is someone truly committed to making a difference in the children's lives.

The writer is an English teacher in Guri, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at ESLcity@gmail.com