Education authorities urged to recruit more French language teachers

Students sit in class at a high school in Gyeonggi Province, June. 3, 2020. Korea Times photo by Lee Han-ho

By Lee Hyo-jin

Education authorities are being urged to recruit more French language teachers through the middle and high school teacher recruitment exam set for the end of the year, as public schools in Seoul are facing a shortage of teachers, according to a coalition of French language educators.

There will be only one high school French teacher left working in Seoul's public school system by the 2022 spring semester if no new teachers are appointed, said the group consisting of French professors and teachers nationwide.

Currently, there are six full-time teachers in the capital area, among which, four will retire this August, and another one plans to quit in February next year.

“At least seven new teachers should be recruited to fill in the soon-to-be empty positions,” Noh Yeon-sang, head of the Korean Association of French teachers, told The Korea Times, Friday.

The latest recruitment of French teachers in Seoul was back in 2008. Due to a lack of regular teachers, many classes are run by contract-based or part-time instructors, said Noh.

In addition to the urgent supply of French teachers, Noh stated that the current foreign language education system in public schools should be reviewed, as it fails to reflect the diverse needs of students to learn various languages.

According to a survey conducted by the Korean Education Development Institute of 29,046 students in 400 high schools nationwide on their foreign language preference, French came in third place, after Japanese and Chinese.

However, many schools, especially those in the provinces, do not offer French classes.

Noh pointed out that the demand from students for Western languages is not being properly reflected in the elective surveys conducted by each school, given that “minority languages” are excluded from the survey in the first place.

“Although the education curriculum offers nine foreign languages, students have to choose only among the subjects that their school already has, depriving them of opportunities for a diverse range of language education,” he said.

He added that the issue must be addressed before the implementation of the high school credit system in 2025, which will enable students to choose the subjects they want to study, like in university.

The teachers' group has filed a proposal to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE), asking for the issue to be addressed in the upcoming meeting of the National Council of Superintendents of Education in March.

In response, the education office said that it is aware of such calls, but current data does not support the claims that there is a shortage of French teachers.

“In fact, the number of French teachers exceeds the demand from students. The exact number for the recruitment of new teachers should be discussed further with the relevant governmental bodies such as the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation,” an official at the education office told The Korea Times.