An hour-and-a-half ferry ride from Mokpo, Haui-do is an island of roughly 1,970 people and is the birthplace of the late President Kim Dae-jung. The island's elementary school is a little bigger with 43 students plus 13 in the preschool.
If you look around the webpage for the Shinan Office of Education you can find stats on all the county's schools current of September, numbers which differ a little from what you find on school websites. There are 831 students distributed among the 14 middle schools in Shinan, a county comprised almost entirely of islands. Looking at this map it looks like Haui Middle School, the one MBC reported on, is among the most remote.
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I currently teach on Heuksando (흑산도), the most remote island out (2 hour ferry from Mokpo) in Shinan County with a NEST on it. The only island farther out is Gageodo (가거도) which is another two hours from Heuskando. I cover one elmentary school, one middle school, and 6 branch elementary schools on separate islands adjacent to Heuksando. You are certainly right about the lack of students. Most of the branch schools have between 5 and 12 kids. I've often wondered when the Shinan Education Office is going to decide that the huge expense of sending teachers to, and maintaining school buildings on, all of these islands is simply unjustifiable.
On the other hand staffing, in terms of finding the teachers, is not really a problem. Most of the teachers out here come voluntarily because a 2 year stint basically guarantees them a promotion afterwards.
Of course getting NESTs out here has been a problem. I'm first on Heuksando, though apparently they had been trying for a few years before me.
Really interesting stuff, Justin, thanks for sharing.
Sounds like you have a really special perspective on all this. I wonder, too, how much longer they can continue to send NSETs around. When I lived in Gangjin county---not islands---there were a bunch of schools that didn't have a native speaker. One of the foreigners in town had to travel to 10 schools a week to do it; the job fell to him b/c he had a scooter. The creation of English Towns, such as that in Gangjin, was supposed to offset the problem, by simply collecting NSETs in one place and rotating students in and out. And, after some consideration, I kind of thing English Towns are a more efficient way to go in rural areas. I don't like the idea of eliminating NSETs altogether, so perhaps an English Town is a happy medium.
I wonder if in the future the schools will simply do without, unless there's a NSET who has settled down to live in the area.
Thanks again for the visit and the comment.
When I first arrived on Jindo, there was one teacher who taught at the main high school (the other two HSs didn't have an NEST), one teacher who taught at the English Town, one teacher who taught at all 7 middle schools (me), and one part time F2 visa teacher who taught sometimes at the elementary schools. Jindo's foreigner population really exploded a few months after I arrived. There are now two HS teachers, 4 or 5 MS teachers, 2 elementary school teachers, an English Town teacher, and 3 hagwon teachers.
However, there's an island off the coast of Jindo, called Jodo, that the middle school teachers (myself included) used to have to teach at from time to time. The MS and HS were combined, and there were about 40 students total between the two, and we were expected to teach them all. Last I heard, they were trying to get a teacher dedicated to that school, but I'm not surprised they're not having any luck; Jodo is an hour ferry away from the southernmost port, and that port is 45 minutes to an hour away from the nearest grocery store bigger than your standard Korean bodega/corner store. When it rains, the ferry doesn't run. I enjoyed island life in rural Korea, but Jodo would have been a stretch even for me. I hope they don't stick a foreigner there without giving him/her a heads up as to what they're getting into; I think anything less would be pretty grotesquely deceptive.
I can confirm as well from my year in Wando, that they are focusing on English Towns as a way to ensure all the schools in the remote island county's get teaching time with NESTs.
The Wando English Town (though its called Foreign Language Center, its really the same thing) had a dormitory in it. So remote schools that are more than an hour away by ferry, can spend all of Thursday at the Center, stay over Thursday night, have classes Friday morning, and head back.
During the week myself, my NEST co-worker, and the two Korean staff, would be sent off to 4 other Elementary schools on Wando island during the week, which didn't have an NEST. My smallest class was 5 students.
Wando itself currently has 4 NESTs at the Elementary, Middle, and High School.
Every working Saturday, many of the NESTs employed in Wando, are often paid for extra classes to travel to the other remote Middle and High Schools without NESTs.
One of the more remote islands has a couple on Nowha, they spend their time between several middle schools on several islands.
A second English Town was also planned last I heard.
Its worth noting too, that Wando County has already been downsizing over the years. When I would travel to remote schools I could notice many schools that were already closed along the road.
Yep, bza, you're right about schools closing.
In Gangjin there was a big book in the teachers' office which had information about all the closed schools in the province---there are hundreds---organized by county/city. I always wanted to visit some of them. Not surprisngly, they're remote.
If you look on the Office of Education websites for local counties and cities you can usually get a list of closed schools in that area. Shinan didn't seem to have a list, but most counties do. I'll dig some up later.
When I lived on Jindo they were thinking about closing Jisan, one of the middle schools. When I taught there it didn't even have indoor plumbing (literally, there was no running water inside the building), and with only 55 or so students I suspect that the OoE probably views it as cheaper to close than to bring it up to modern standards. The high school in Jisan closed several years ago, and now all the students from the southern half of the island have to take long buses to go to the main high school in Jindo Eup. I don't know about the elementary schools because I never really knew anyone who taught at them.
Wow Heuksando, that is a nice place, must be hard to work out there though.
For those folks out on those isands, how are the conditions, some aspects of it sound good (small classes) while other things sound terrible, (no convienient grocery stores that have imported things.) Are the conditions alright?
@3gyupsal: That depends on what you consider to be "alright" conditions.
I really enjoyed my time on Jindo, but it would not be for everyone. One of the seven schools I taught at did not have indoor plumbing (it had a big communal outhouse/latrine). I had to drive my motorcycle anywhere from 20-60 minutes to get to work, depending on the location (for one, it was a 60 minute drive, then a 60 minute ferry, then a 15 minute drive). The nearest EMart, etc was in Mokpo, an hour away. The nearest imported goods store was almost 3 hours away in Gwangju. My 3rd graders (final middle school grade) could barely form a sentence in English, due to the poor English instruction in previous years (I recognize that this can be a problem anywhere in Korea, but it is generally more severe in rural areas and islands). When I arrived, there were only 3 other foreigners on the island.
But, I enjoyed it, and I'd do it again. The lack of foreigners made me bond more with the Koreans I knew. The remoteness made me learn to ride a motorcycle, and I got to have daily experiences with a side of Korea most NESTs don't even really realize exists. The lack of imported goods made me rely more on Korean foods and made me more creative and resourceful in the kitchen. The small schools had students who generally worked hard, because they knew that doing well was a ticket off the island.
It's all about what matters to you. Conditions aren't good or bad, they're just what works for you or doesn't.
If you want a little more detail on this, I wrote a blog post about it awhile back. You can read it here: http://www.driftingfocus.com/blogs/?p=5303
Working from a English town in a county where I deal with rotating students I had never really considered the value of the English Towns as a solution to small enrollment schools, but it is quite a good one. Have the students come to you and have a good time. In my county it seems that each school does have exposure to an foreigner so my kids English is pretty good. But being on those islands sounds like a blast and rewarding. My wife teaches online English to some really remote kids. Do they do that in your area Justin? You get internet out there? lol
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