SMOE Budget Cuts - and we (Foreign teachers) are the first to go

Seoul has decided to cut their budget for English education. This may be just speculation but some coworkers have told me that this budget cut may be due to a decision made last year to offer free lunches to all elementary school students. The idea is to ensure that all students (regardless of SES) will have access to good nutritional lunches. Great idea - except it is at at huge cost to SMOE and it may be unnecessary in many parts of Seoul.

57% of Native English teachers will be let go in the coming school year, and all of us will be phased out by 2014. It's not that English education is not important here. It will continue to be in their national tests. But Korean teachers will take over our jobs.

I love teaching here. There are a few factors pulling me home to Canada but I am considering a 2nd year here. My VP approached me and told me that all the staff and parents at my school are asking me to stay. They are waiting for the official papers to arrive to find out if my school will be given the budget to keep me. I'm trying not to think about it so much. I was having a hard time deciding if I should stay; perhaps SMOE can make that decision for me now.

Putting me aside and thinking about the bigger picture, I wonder how English education would change without us here. I always thought that we were not worth the money we were getting paid. They pay for our rent, our flights, half our medical insurance, and our settlement money on top of our pay. Our salary is higher than many young Korean teachers. Our job is to teach only English classes, our Korean colleagues will take care of our administrative work for us since we cannot read Korean. Most of us are not trained teachers. Many of us came here for reasons other than to teach. Are we really worth it?

But on the other hand, with us gone, Korean teachers would have to teach English classes. While all of them are technically qualified to teach English, most of them cannot speak the language. And those who are relatively fluent in English still have a strong Korean accent, leading to incorrect pronunciation in many cases.

With the foreign teachers gone in the public system, foreigners who wish to remain in Korea would all go to teach in private academies (called hagwons). Most of my students already attend hagwons everyday after school until 7 or 8pm (some even till 11pm). The students who attend hagwons are stressed because of the workload, and the students who do NOT attend hagwons are stressed because their peers are all ahead of them. If hagwons are the only way for students to be exposed to foreigners and native english teachers, then reliance on hagwon education would be increased even more. The gap between the rich and poor would be even more pronounced.

The Korean teachers are all against SMOE's decision to get rid of us. I personally can't decide where I stand. What do you think?

http://asiancorrespondent.com/71534/seoul-schools-will-not-be-re-hiring-foreign-teachers-in-2012/