KoreaToday Busan schools to evaluate foreign teachers

Top educator of the city plans to provide free meals for elementary schoolers from 2011

By Kang Shin-who

BUSAN — Schools in this southeastern port city will begin full-blown evaluations of foreign teachers for their teaching skills and working attitude next year, the city’s top educator said.

Lim Hea-kyung, superintendent of the Busan Metropolitan City of Education, said, “The comprehensive appraisals will ultimately upgrade the quality of English education, with those teachers who rate poorly being kicked out of schools.”

It is the first time that a major city in the country will evaluate foreign teachers.

Under the plan, the city education authorities will assess assistant teachers for English conversation classes in teaching ability, working attitude and manners.

Their classes will be observed by an evaluation team three times a year and teachers who get lower than 70 or 80 points on the full scale of 100 will no longer be allowed to teach and lose their jobs.

Instead, the top 10 percent in the evaluation will receive a financial incentive reward of 100,000 won ($87) per month.

“We should strengthen our training program to help improve the teaching methodology of native English teachers,” said Lim. “We will also evaluate how well the foreign assistant teachers cooperate with their Korean teacher counterparts.”

To help them adapt to life here, the education office is running Korean language and culture programs.

The first-ever female education superintendent stressed the importance of English education in this era of globalization. “I believe it is better for children to learn English when they are younger. We need to develop quality programs for pre-school children.”

The Busan education office issues certificates to students according to their English conversation proficiency.

The 62-old-year superintendent will also put a greater focus on upgrading the quality of Korean English teachers. In this regard, she will increase the number of teachers going overseas for training programs. Currently, English teachers in Busan can apply for teaching positions at schools in the U.S., Canada and the Philippines. The education office is also grading the Korean teachers according to their teaching abilities.

Ties with foreign schools

She plans to cooperate with foreign schools, especially Busan International Foreign School, recently built in Gijang-gun.

“Our city government invested some 50 billion won in the foreign school. I will try to introduce various programs in cooperation with the school,” the top educator said.

“I want to send our teachers and students to the school, then we can save on overseas training costs, as our teachers, and students are able to learn English there. In exchange, we may offer Korean culture programs to the school,” she added.

Equipped with 36 classrooms, a music education and computer room, as well as a gymnasium, the foreign school can accommodate about 700 students from kindergarten to high school.

Free school meals

One of Superintendent Lim’s commitments during the election campaign for the post was providing all elementary school students in the city with free meals. In spite of many hurdles in keeping the promise, Lim is confident that she can make it happen.

“Many view the free meal plan pessimistically, but I believe it will be no problem, if city government and district offices share the budget for the plan,” she said.

“I will gradually increase the number of students that will benefit. For example, we can offer free meals to those in the first through third grade next year and then, to all the elementary students in the following year.”

She noted that she needs to approach the matter politically when it comes to drawing money from city and district governments. “I am enjoying my job very much in terms of education administration, which I am used to doing from when I was serving as supervisor and senior supervisor at the education office,” she said.

“However, I need to be more politically-minded sometimes in order to persuade city council members for more funding. I am not accustomed to this, but I am willing to do it, if it is for a better education environment,” she added. Lim, who took office last July, is seeking to maintain stability in personnel management and help them to do their best in their positions.

Welfare for interracial families

Lim also has great concern for the welfare of children from interracial families. “We need to take special care of children from multiracial families as minorities always have difficulties wherever they are. I believe they should be protected, supported and respected,” she said.

Towards that end, the education office put the first priority in helping the children to speak Korean fluently.

Teachers will also be trained to better deal with those children. In addition, the education authorities will invite more immigrant wives from southeastern Asian countries as “culture teachers.”

“We need to respect the mothers of the children in front of other students, so that they can be proud of their mothers and be self-confident. This program will be helpful for us as it creates a global education environment at our schools,” Lim said.

Under the plan, it will increase the global classes from 60 to 200, for next year and schools with more than five children from multiracial families will be required to set up Korean language programs.

Recovery of education essence

The life-long educator vowed to recover the essence of education at schools during her tenure; producing students who can contribute to their families, society and further to the country. Lim said she will focus on three things; improving academic ability, rooting out corruption and inspiring a warm environment at schools.

“First of all, I will make efforts to help schools become more competitive. Also, schools will be free from corruption, especially in that teachers should not show favoritism to certain students. Finally, we will build caring schools where all members, teachers and students love each other,” Lim said.

“I will not waste my energy on administration and the power of education for nothing. For this, I will ask each school principal to do their best in order to create a better education environment. I am sure you will see substantial results in two years,” she added.