Incentives to become regular employees motivate part-time school instructors, a study showed Monday.
In a report by the Korean Economic Association, researcher Cho Hyun-gook compared test scores of part-timers at 41 public schools and 50 private ones. He came to these conclusions.
Private schools select their employees on their own and part-timers knew that. Working hard and proving their ability could be the gateway to their job stability. They had full incentives to make the effort. Driven teachers’ work bore out high scores in students’ tests.
However, cases for public schools were the opposite. The education office assigns teachers, so whatever job they do in public schools doesn’t reflect on the possibility of becoming regular employees. They lacked motivation, and students’ score didn’t change.
He said a one-percentage-point increase in the number of part-time instructors meant a 0.6-percentage-point decrease in English test scores in public schools but a 0.2-percentage-point increase in private schools.
“Unlike language, math scores don’t show rapid change. Reasoning cannot be easily taught in a short time span,” Cho explained. Students’ satisfaction was high in private schools, but low in public schools, the study added.