After-school English must continue
By Robert Song
Recently, the education ministry’s decision to ban after-school English classes for first and second graders has caused much debate. As a former English educator and now a concerned parent, I would like to weigh in on this important subject.
First of all, back in 2005 I worked as a director at GnB English, one of Korea’s leading English academy franchises back then. At our peak, we had about 1,600 schools nationwide.
One of the reasons for this huge success was the regular school’s failure at teaching English. Not only was English not taught until the third grade, English classes for the most part were not very effective.
At that time, I always wondered why regular schools could not improve their in-school programs as well as offer lots of after-school classes. After-school classes in English were not that prevalent back then.
Fast forward to a few years ago and like mushrooms, after-school classes started popping up as well as in school English programs improving. Naturally, GnB English as well as most other English academies lost their edge and many went out of business. As I see it, the main reason for this was economics and convenience.
After-school programs are roughly more than 50 percent cheaper than classes at academies. The main reason for this is no rent needs to be paid; our taxes pay that. Also, since the classes are taught at elementary schools, parents do not need to shuttle their children back and forth from academies as the kids can just move about within the school grounds themselves.
If anyone has had children, taking your child from English to taekwondo to art academies is an extremely time consuming activity. Parents with two or more children, well … need I say more.
Having lived for over 20 years in Korea and witnessed the government’s inconsistent English educational policies, I wish it would stop trying to turn the clock back. As the saying goes, “the horse has left the barn” or “the genie is out of the bottle,” the government should not ban English in pre-schools and should not ban after-school programs.
Since this is what people want and need, instead of trying to stifle it, they should be supporting and encouraging it. What they should do is ban English on the CSAT and start English at grade one! And why do grades 1-2 classes end after lunch?
Robert Song is a former English educator based in Seoul, Korea, who is a business owner now. Write to robertssong@me.com