By Han Sang-hee
The education authorities have set in motion a long-term plan to cut back on the number of foreign English teachers, trimming several hundreds of jobs at primary and secondary schools in Gyeonggi Province from this spring semester.
According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, the budget allocated to hire foreign English teachers fell to 22.7 billion won ($20 million) for this year from 30 billion won in 2010.
Cho Young-min, senior supervisor of the education office, said the budget cut is in line with the plan to reduce the number of foreign teachers in phases in the years to come.
``We plan to cut about 200 teachers in 2011 from this month. We will also gradually cut the overall number in the coming years,’’ the supervisor said.
But he did not specify how many jobs will be shed at its GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program in Korea.)
Arranged as a three-year project, the English program by the provincial office had hired more teachers over the past three years. In 2010, the number of teachers increased to some 2,252 in Gyeonggi, a 110 percent jump from 2008 when they first started out with some 1,000.
However, after reaching its peak last year, the number of foreign teachers is expected to slide over the next three years in the province surrounding Seoul.
Cho said the cut will be made upon requests from schools, with Korean English conversation teachers replacing them.
However, the supervisor made it clear that the budget reduction for foreign teachers is not to secure funds for the program to provide free lunches to schools.
``The rumors that the budget was cut because of the free meal program is not true,’’ Cho said, emphasizing that the reduction was planned all along.
Seoul sees increase
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also cut its budget for the recruitment of foreign teachers to 35.9 billion won from 37.4 billion won in 2010.
But the cut will not result in the fall in the number of foreign teachers, as districts in the capital will increase their share of spending.
“As a result, 37 more teachers will be added to the total count this year,” said Yoon Ho-sang, senior supervisor at the office’s English education department. “The budget did downsize, but I can confirm that this has nothing to do with the free meal program,’’ he added.
According to Yoon, the education office is responsible for 71 percent of the total budget used for foreign teachers.
The Seoul education office started its English teacher program in 2005 and currently a total of 1,207 foreign teachers work in elementary, middle and high schools around Seoul, which means there are 1.05 foreign teachers per school.
In a 2009 survey conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, more than 90 percent of 5,500 parents, students and teachers said that they thought the program was helpful, while 93 percent of Korean teachers were very satisfied with the foreign teachers’ qualifications and class performance.
예산 삭감으로 원어민 보조교사 수 줄어
경기도 교육청이 올해 원어민 보조교사의 수를 대폭 줄일것으로 보인다.
2010년 300억원이었던 예산은 올해 227억원으로 줄면서 총 200여명의 원어민 보조교사들ㅇ 일자리를 잃게 될것으로 보인다.
경기도 교육청은 이러한 계획은 영어프로그램 3개년 계획을 바탕으로 이루어진 것이며 차차 원어민 보조교사의 수를 줄여나갈것이라고 설명했다.
반면 서울교육청은 예산 삭감에도 불구하고 원어민 보조교사의 수가 늘어날 것이라고 발표했다. 서울교육청은 2010년의 374억에서 올해는 359억으로 줄어들었지만 지자체등의 예싼 확보로 실질적으로는 37명의 원어민 교사를 더 보강할수 있을것이라고 알려왔다.
두 교육청 모두 예산 삭감이 최근 뜨거운 감자로 떠오른 무상급식 때문이라는 소문은 터무니없는 것이라고 알리기도 했다.
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