I read this at the Chosun News website.
Under a five-year plan to improve English education announced on Sunday, the ministry will drastically increase the number of native English-speaking teachers at middle schools from the current 221 to at least one for each of Korea’s 2,850 middle schools. It will also boost the number of native speakers at elementary and high schools -- currently totaling 236 and 244 respectively ? depending on local authorities’ budgets. The new English teachers will be taught Korean culture and basic Korean before being let loose on the students.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Economics aside, I think it will be almost impossible to find enough qualified teachers and very challenging to develop and use an effective curriculum.
I was surprised to see that there are 2,850 middle schools... that seemed little low to me at first. Personally, I've taught in 16 different ones and visited 10 or 11 others- and that's just within Busan.
The article says that the plan is from the Ministry of Education. I work for the Ministry of Education so I'm kind of wondering if my job will be changing or if the program is just expanding.
In my free time (Ha!) I will have a chat with my supervisor about it.


