By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The Philippines is now excited about sending English teachers to Korea. The Manila Bulletin, a daily newspaper there, reported that the Korean government plans to ease teaching visa rules on its front page published July 11, with the title, ``Local English teachers are welcome in South Korea.''
It said Korean schools need more English teachers and the government is planning to soften its policy to open its doors to Filipino teachers, Luis T. Cruz, Ambassador to Korea was quoted as saying. The paper continued that Cruz said he met with the commissioner of Korea Immigration Service, Choo Kyu-ho, who expressed his government's willingness to ``extend the scope'' of current laws on the entry of professionals into their country. The immigration authority's plan was reported by The Korea Times last January.
The article was in line with Busan top educator, Seol Dong-guen's visit to the country for an education agreement. Busan Metropolitan Office of Education is one of the education authorities in Korea pushing to work more with Southeast countries. It has already employed Filipino wives married to Koreans, those who are free from visa problems here, as English teacher at its schools.
``We are waiting for our government to allow teachers from countries adopting English as an official language. The revised rule could provide more qualified foreign teachers of English to our schools,'' said an official of the education office.
During the visit, the Busan top educator signed with his counterpart to donate $6 million worth of school equipment including 300 Pentium computers and a specialized training program for 50 Korean teachers in the Philippines.