Lee Myung-bak A Threat to Hagwons?
Favored South Korean Presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak has a plan to improve English language proficiency and it appears the plan may not be a good thing for English hagwon owners:
Lee, 65, said that if he is elected president he will implement measures to cut household spending on private education by half of the current level through strengthening English education at public schools.
“English education accounts for half of the household spending on private education,” he said.
The former Seoul mayor proposes introducing English immersion programs and an English teacher certificate to help teachers improve language proficiency. About 3,000 teachers will be cultivated so that they can conduct classes in English. He also pledged to give universities full freedom in picking freshmen.
Experts said that Koreans spend an estimated 30 trillion won on private education per year. About 15 trillion won is spent for private English lessons annually.
The presidential nominee plans to cut private spending by upgrading the quality of public school programs. [Kang Hyun-kyung – Korea Times]
The one thing I hear Koreans complain the most about is not North Korea, corruption, pollution, or other issues; it is the cost of education. Koreans dedication to educating their children is incredible with the amount of money they pour into the private hagwon schools. Anyone that can reduce the cost of education without reducing quality in Korea will definitely have popular approval.
Same old same old..how do they plan to lower spending? are they going to tell me who does privates classes for a living that i make too much and should charge less? hahah!
whatever……it's supply and emand they should be targeting. People (foreigners) don't stay here because koreans are thieves and liers; thye should adress that first not .001% of the population.
Lee's plan appears to be that he will reduce costs by improving English education in the public schools thus making it unnecessary for Korean families to have to hire the services of a English hagwon.
Like I said in my posting, the key is going to be quality. If the quality is not there the families will still use hagwons. From my own personal experience having volunteered to teach English at a Korean middle school I was not impressed with the Korean English teachers who could not hold a conversation with me. Hiring more teachers is not the solution; offering better quality teachers is.
Sorry about my 'speling' errors it was early and i hadn't had my coffee yet.
Getting rid of hogwans? I think Lee really needs to grasp the scope of the industry, which happens to be the #1 employer of 20 something single women in korea. Without hogwans, especially English or danqua, where else would 3,000,000 people be employed?
Quality; that's another juggernaut. Who do expect to come here? Ivy league grads and pay them what a think tank pays in travel expenses a month; 2million won. Koreans get exactly what they pay; low level college grads just starting out paying off student loans. They are lucky to get even these people with the way they treat them. The industry has terrible retention rates for teachers and teaching visas, upwards of 60% leave during contract 1; horrid.
As for korean teachers you hit the nail on the head. They simply don't care. It's almost impossible for them to get fired and then tread water until the pension kicks in. I've never seen a lazier group of people.
Korean parents use the hogwan as an excuse to get rid of the kids in the afternoon, it has the lure of education but it's little more than pawning off and much more of a babysitting service. If they only taught basketweaving at hogwans they would still send them there. The subject of instruction makes little difference.
You will never see quality education in korea because koreans punish good teachers by giving them more classes and greater responsibility. I have seen this 1000 fold.
Eventually the good teachers move on because they see that doing a good job is actually a hindrence to their well being while slackers like me float along just the same. The end result; we both get rehired but I still have a full head of hair while superteacher is in the smoking room trying to relieve his stress before 'special' class begins.
I'd rather be a live dog than a dead lion, teachers that really care end up as failed statistics. What happens to superstars? they eventually supernova and turn into white dwarfs, there's some irony in that.
Skippy,
I think you pretty well cover the subject of why this plan is doomed to failure and why hagwons will always be around. I think you hit the nail on the head with the comment that some Korean parents use these hagwons as babysitting services too. I have met some Korean parent who are really involved in their kids' educations but most of them just want the extra free time. Even if the money and time are spent at the beginning to get quality English teachers, or train the teachers that are already in place to a higher standard, the status quo will take over after the initial hub-bub dies down and you'll still have the "same-old, same-old" as you put it. It will be like all the other countless "campaigns" I saw in my years in Korea. It's great for a while, but then after everyone loses interest it goes right back to status quo.
I'm glad you feel the same way. New campaign? out with the old in with the old and an old dog too to boot.
I honestly feel that the only reason why English is pushed on in this juggernaught style is because there is so much room for Koreans to scam and take advantage of their own and us. Most Koreans are oblivious to matters of those dealing with whitey, take the word of whomever is lying to them and simply hand over the envelope not knowing half of it is going somewhere other than the foreign teachers pocket.
People really need to wise up and stop this…..
[…] Or this policy smacks of no policy whatsoever. Remarkable how one of the most important, and expensive, subjects for Koreans gets no serious consideration about its study or implementation, especially […]
[…] a long time, there’s been talk of moving towards a system in which foreigners aren’t as crucial to the equation — one in which […]