Temp teachers demand job security

Promotion to permanent status opposed by regular teachers

By Nam Hyun-woo

Thousands of contract English instructors at primary and secondary schools are calling for the government to guarantee their job security. However, they are facing strong opposition not only from the government but also from regular teachers.

Non-permanent lecturers teaching English conversation submitted a petition on May 16 to the National Human Rights Commission to prevent the scheduled lay-offs of some 600 such instructors.

The government launched the English conversation instructor program in 2009, hiring a total of 6,104 contract teachers up until last year. According to the tenets of the Enforcement Decree of The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, however, they cannot work for longer than four years.

The 600 teachers, representing the first batch of teachers recruited in 2009, will complete their contracts in August without the possibility of renewal. The remaining 5,900 will also be sacked after their contracts expire.

In the initial stage of the system, instructors with quality English language skills applied for the program. But in 2011, the government changed the recruitment system to allow individual schools the autonomy to recruit their own teachers based on their criteria. That system triggered concern about a decline in tuition quality alongside complaints of unfair treatment from the temporary teachers.

“The government should be in charge of recruiting and managing the instructors. That would solve the problems of unfair treatment and discrimination we face,” said Ko Sun-kyung, who leads the Korean Association of Primary and Secondary English Conversation Teachers (KAPSET).

Last year, the education ministry proposed a revision of the law to extend their term to eight years but it failed because of opposition from the Ministry of Government Legislation.

“The education ministry pledged our stable employment and the improvement of working conditions. But it is ignoring its own promise,” another official at KAPSET said during a press conference in front of the association’s building in Seoul.

KAPSET plans to stage a massive protest in front of the National Assembly on June 1, calling for the abolishment of the act and their promotion to permanent positions.

However, the education ministry said it will not propose any further revision to the current law.

“The ministry will fully support instructors whose contracts expired to move to other schools. But another round of revision proposal is not planned,” said an official at the ministry.

Regular teachers unhappy

Regular teachers are also dissatisfied with the influx of new English teachers.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) opposes the lecturers’ demands, claiming the education ministry unfairly favors English conversation teachers.

“Other irregular instructors, such as sports instructors and foreign English lecturers, take roles as assistant teachers who cannot grade students. But the English conversation teachers, only 73.4 percent of them having teaching certificates, can grade students. It is preferential treatment,” said an official at KTU.

According to data released by the union in October 2012, a regular English teacher at a local primary school with three years experience received 2.23 million won ($1,978) monthly, but the monthly paycheck of an English conversation teacher who worked the same period at the school, was 2.55 million won. The workload of a general teacher, ranging from taking care of students to paper work, was more than that of an English conversation teacher who only takes charge of English classes.

The KTU official said English conversation teachers have already enjoyed privileges by making inroads into limited English teacher positions originally allocated for graduates from teachers’ colleges.

Another umbrella educators’ federation, the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations (KFTA), echoed KTU’s view.

“The English conversation teacher system could be a temporary resolution for a lack of English teachers coming from the increase of English classes in schools. Before promoting them to permanent status, thorough class inspections and surveys of public opinions should come first,” an official at KFTA said.