There was an interesting article in today’s Joongang Ilbo, English edition, about the effects of the announcement by the city of Seoul’s education authority that it would establish two new, all-English, international middle schools. The article shows quite graphically the relationship between strategies in public education and the activities of private English and study abroad institutes.
The Korea Times published an editorial that provides interesting background on the issues raised by the announced plan for Seoul to establish two international middle schools. This was the subject of an earlier post. For those of you interested, this editorial helps to frame the issue more completely.
As reported in the Digital Chosun, from August 25, 2008, all newly issued Korean passports will be electronically readable. The e-passports store holders’ identification data in a built-in electronic chip in the back cover of the passport to prevent fabrication. It looks the same as the older passports. (see the accompanying graphic. Click on the graphic to see a full-size version) Only e-passports will work for the visa waiver program to the U.S., which is expected to begin later this year. Those without a U.S. visa will be able to enter the U.S. by switching to the new e-passports and will be able to stay up to 90 days under the visa waiver program, once that is enacted.
Seoul National University and dozens of other universities will expand the use of admission officers to recruit students. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Wednesday that the schools will admit at least 3,000 students next year under a state-supported ”admission officer” system. The ministry last year began subsidizing 10 universities for recruiting admission officers with two billion won ($2 million) and has selected 30 more schools for the program this year. “Universities could introduce a more advanced recruitment system with admissions officers and overcome their old practice of evaluating students with a uniform yardstick,” ministry official Hwang Hong-kyu told reporters at the Central Government Complex in Seoul. See the complete report in The Korea Times.
As reported in the Joongang Ilbo, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has announced a plan to establish two international middle schools in the capital city, each of which will accept 160 freshmen beginning next March. Each school will accept 160 first-year students who will be divided into five classes. The annual tuition will be set at 4.8 million won ($4,574) or less, a measure partly aimed at quelling criticism that the new schools will be affordable only for children from rich families. But first-year students also have to pay an additional 700,000 won as an entrance fee. The Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union held a press conference in front of the education office yesterday to protest the decision.
“The change would put enormous burden on elementary school students and increase the financial burden on parents, eventually devastating the elementary education system,” said the union in a statement.
In the first half of 2008, Korean expenditures on education and language training abroad fell by the biggest margin since the 1997 financial crisis. According to a Bank of Korea report on the balance of international payments released Sunday, Koreans spent US$2.256 billion on overseas training in the first half of 2008, down 5.8 percent, or $138 million year on year.
According to an article in the Chosun Ilbo, the falling figures are due primarily to worsening financial conditions, including a weaker local currency and a slowing economy, although some attribute this phenomenon to Koreans’ reduced preference for overseas studying and language training. Some analysts have suggested that the phenomenon of sending children overseas at younger and younger ages has peaked. For further detail, read the full article.
An interesting article in the New York Times, “College and Company Link up to Lure Foreigners,” describes Northeastern University’s new partnership with Kaplan to recruit international students. Kaplan finds students for and helps run an academic program for international students to spend a year on campus, improving their English and acclimating to American higher education, before starting one of Northeastern’s degree programs. Although Northeastern is the first American university with such a partnership, the model, now common in Britain, is gaining interest in the United States. Some critics worry that if such partnerships catch on widely, the quest for lucrative international students could undermine academic standards, if the profit motive leads programs to admit unqualified students or use low-paid, poorly trained instructors.
The Korean governments new TALK (Teach and Learn in Korea) initiative has begun with the arrival of the first cohort of teachers. For details on the TALK program, see its website.
Fulbright Korea’s own ETA grant program has provided a model for other English teaching programs in Korea. For detailed information on the Fulbright ETA program, see the Fulbright website.
Officials from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology have announced plans to strengthen online etiquette education in South Korea’s grade schools. Currently students receive instruction on internet ethics beginning in the fourth grade. Starting next year, such instruction will be given in the second and third grades.
According to the Donga Ilbo, “Twenty-two pages on Web etiquette will be included in ethics textbooks and supplementary teaching material. The chapter “My Friend, the Computer” will cover prevention of overuse and addiction to the Internet, and teach students to use polite words on the Web. The ethics textbook for fourth graders to come out in 2010 will have 20 pages on Internet etiquette. That for fifth graders to be introduced in 2011 will also contain 20 pages on preventing Web addiction.”
Interest in learning English is so pervasive in South Korea these days that official government statistics can hardly capture the scope of the activity. An article entitled “The English Frenzy in Korea” recently appeared on the KBS website. With regard to the size of the English education market in South Korea, the article suggests that ”The scope of the English-language education market in Korea reaches 4-5 trillion won annually, including private institutes, textbooks and overseas language programs. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development estimates the official number of English-language private institutes nationwide to surpass 3,000. But people in the private education industry say the actual number of private English institutes nationwide is at least 10,000, with their profits exceeding 2 trillion won a year.”
The article also noted that “The amount of private tutoring costs paid by students for overseas language courses or for studying TOEFL and TOEIC in order to find a job is enormous as well. After polling 2,348 college seniors, the School of Education of Ewha Women’s University found that each of the respondents spent 12.61 million won over four years on average on private education in order to find a job. Of that, 11.94 million won was spent on studying English.”