Gyeeonggi Schools to Hire English-Speaking Workers

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The Gyeeonggi Provincial Office of Education said it will encourage schools to hire English-speaking Indians and Filipinos for jobs at cafeterias or stores within schools to give students more chances to speak English.

``We will encourage schools to hire Indians and Filipinos for English zones and school stores to give students opportunities to use English during lunch and break times,’’ it said in a statement. It expects schools to hire them at relatively lower costs than native English speakers. About 50 schools in the province will initially test run the scheme.

However, the statement of the education agency has invited criticism from embassies and civic organizations as well as other education offices.

``Cheap doesn’t mean low quality. We have many high-quality English teachers in the Philippines,’’ said Jed Dayang, spokesman of the Philippine Embassy to Seoul.

A source from Indian embassy also said that Indians will not come to Korea to work at stores at schools, mentioning that there are many high-quality English teachers working in the U.S., Japan and China.

A supervisor from Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also pointed out it is discriminative. ``So Americans are not allowed to work at English zones and stores?’’ she said.

Regarding this, Hwang Ik-joong, senior supervisor of the Gyeonggi Education Office told The Korea Times, ``We meant to use foreigners who can speak English well but cannot teach English in Korea due to immigration regulations that only allow foreign teachers by nationality.’’

Additionally, the education office plans to increase the number of native English-speaking teachers from 1,272 to 1,952 by 2010 so that all schools will have at least one native English teacher, at a cost of 24 billion won ($24 million).

The education authorities will also strengthen training programs for foreign teachers. Under the plan, supervisors from the education office will monitor and assist foreign English teachers during the classes to help improve their teaching skills.

Meanwhile, the education office plans to increase the number of Korean English teachers who can conduct classes only in English from current 56 percent to 70 percent through traininig programs by the end of the year. It will ultimately make all English teachers teach only in Enlgish by 2011.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

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