According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the number of foreign teachers who failed to complete their working contracts last year rose to 425 from 283 a year ago. This year as well, 252 native English speakers have already left schools as of July, according to Rep. Kim Se-yeon of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) who asked the ministry to submit the statistics to the National Assembly.
. . .
Particularly, nearly 30 percent of the foreign teachers who ended their contract worked for less than six months. Some 22 percent of them quit to study or transferred to other jobs, while about 15 percent left without prior notice and others for various reasons including difficulties in adapting to their schools, illness, and being involved in crimes.
The contents of the report were, um, reported elsewhere, but while the Times put the number at roughly 5%, other sources have it as much as 13 times higher. From Yonhap, the Korean wire service:
More than a third of the native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months or so on the job, challenging the effectiveness of language immersion programs installed nationwide, a report said Wednesday.
The report submitted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to the parliament showed 42.4 percent of native instructors ended their contract after six months last year, up from 34 percent in 2008. The rate again fell to 34 percent as of the end of July of this year.
From the Korea Herald, which has different figures than the Times:
Some 950 teachers, or 4.7 percent, cancelled their employment contract in mid-semester within the first year and 34 percent among them (as of this July) quit during their first six months, according to the survey.
From the JoongAng Daily on the "English teacher dropout rates" on October 1st:
More than a third of native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months or so on the job, challenging the effectiveness of language immersion programs installed nationwide, a report said Wednesday.
The report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology showed 42.4 percent of native instructors last year ended their contract after six months, up from 34 percent in 2008.
And now the Hankyoreh, which reports in an article "Over half of native English teachers quit job after six months" that the number is over 66%:
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) has claimed that around two thirds of native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months on the job because of employment or studies, through a report on Sept. 29.
The report submitted by the MEST to the ruling Grand National Party lawmakers showed that as of July 2010, 66.1 percent of native English teachers ended their contract in six months, without completing their one-year contract period. The number of teachers leaving their job halfway through a contract has increased rapidly from 46 percent in 2008 and 57.6 percent in 2009. The average rate over last three years is 56.4 percent, which means one of two native teachers left school before the contract’s expiration.
The JoongAng Daily goes on to give another unfathomable number, that
The dropout rate was highest in the southern industrial city of Ulsan at 90 percent[.]
Given Kang Shin-who's track record of distortion over the past two years I'm wary of trusting his figures, but we might want to look at a crucial part of his Times piece to help make sense of the numbers, particularly the misinformation on the messageboards that one-third of NSETs are quitting before the six-month mark:
Particularly, nearly 30 percent of the foreign teachers who ended their contract worked for less than six months.
The crucial information seems to be, to reiterate a point made a few hours ago, that it's nearly one-third of the NSETs who ended their contracts early did so before the six-month mark.
The JoongAng Daily also includes a quotation from an official at the Ministry of Education,:
“The government will more thoroughly examine English teacher candidates’ vocational enthusiasm and intention for long-term service."
an item that goes into the topic of an earlier post today about NSET evaluations and that schools not only don't know what to do with teachers with "intention for long-term service" but that schools---and their recruiters---aren't hiring older, experieced teachers because they don't want to pay them.
19 comments:
I read that the number is actually 101% up from -1% last year. Fun with statistics.
I seem to recall this coming up a couple years ago. The reporter or politician or whatever made some unwarranted straight line projection. x number have dropped out in the first 3 months therefore we can expect the same amount every 3 months and therefore 4x for the whole year.
But of course, it's obvious in anything people wash out in greater numbers at the start. Or there's a bathtub type curve.
The question is for the ministry to ask. Why in a bad economy for recent grads are their attrition rates so damn high?
Funny how, even Korean who know better than anyone how awful Korean employers usually are, will not attribute this phenomena to bad work conditions, bad treatment, or low pay as reasons for teachers leaving.
When employers revert to 2002 standard wages, they get what they pay for: desperate losers that aren't worth hiring.
Anyways, the guys that live here and have F2, F4, or F5 visas will be the last men standing if anyone buys into this marlarky.
It would be more interesting to do a study on how many regional directors keep their jobs after 6 months. There have been at least four, in the four years I've had my job.
That is four regional directors in the region where I work.
So, if we do the math, with 5% leaving early and 30% of them leaving before the 6 month mark, that means 1.5% are leaving before six months. That's a whole lot less than 66%. Also, the numbers given as to WHY NSETs are leaving early only add up to 37% of those who left. What I want to know is, why do the other 63% leave?
You actually expect the locals to take a look in the mirror and down their superiors? No - it's far too easy to blame the foreigners. We pay them all this money, we give them free stuff to help make their lives easier, we offer Korean classes or cultural classes, we make a HUGE deal about their role in our schools. And after all that? They pull a midnight run, or just stop trying.
The data are all over the place, though. ALL over the place. You'd think compiling a single source of numbers wouldn't be that hard - if they could keep information straight to begin with. The Times sounds like they're quoting public school teachers, while the Herald sounds like it's guesstimating based on a sample of hagwons.
@Levi: There may not be any growth in wages - but then again we're already overpaid relative to Korean teachers (throw in the free apartment, too). Not exactly hard to live on what you make when your biggest expense is paid for.
“The government will more thoroughly examine English teacher candidates’ vocational enthusiasm and intention for long-term service."
That's the biggest laugh I've had all day. For starters, how do you "examine...vocational enthusiasm"? Intention for long-term service? That has nothing to do with the 'teachers aren't finishing their one year - one year! - contract.
Those that stick around (myself included) do so regardless of when / if they leave their contracts.
I'd love to read that report - or at least see it - even if it has to be translated via Google. MEST's English site doesn't have it, and a bit of poking around on the Korean version didn't reveal anything either. Anybody have a link?
A couple of things. How many teachers are leaving but are staying in the educational field. I left my last job 7 months in because I got a better job outside the public school system, but still teaching English.
Second the point about paying peanuts and getting monkeys is true despite Chris' assertions. If I were a Korean teacher having taught in the public system for 7 years I would be earning well more than 2.1million a month. And don't give me the free apartment argument. Most teachers my age have only just left home having got married. If you are Korean you probably spent the first 3-5 years of your career living with mummy and daddy.
I also take exception to the phrase "broken contract". If one resigns, having fulfilled one's notice period and repays things like airfare etc as is usually the case if you resign before the 6 month mark you HAVE Not broken your contract. You have fulfilled it to the letter albeit exercising your right to terminate it.
"If one resigns, having fulfilled one's notice period and repays things like airfare etc as is usually the case if you resign before the 6 month mark you HAVE Not broken your contract. You have fulfilled it to the letter albeit exercising your right to terminate it."
How can this be? No one is asked to resign a contract prior to the 6 month mark. NETs usually get asked around the 10th month at best.
The 4-6 newapapers just verified why so many NETs bail out early. Koreans just don't have their shit together. These variations on the stats are just another example!
Here's a brilliant idea - Why are so many NETs bailing out early? Korea, take a good long introspective look!!
blame the foreigner again what else is new?
why doesnt mr kang and his cronies look at the hogwons that dont pay teachers, provide mandated health insurance etc? then again that makes too much sense
Wow, these numbers are much MORE staggering than I suspected (& yeah, I know people in my program who've left at that 6mth mark...we all know the problems that exist, we speak to the DMOE about intervention & they go deaf).
Also, these newspapers only ever quote statistics as if its all under the same propaganda. There's never any meat to the articles.
I think Koreans & the DMOEs need to do some actual listening and investigative journalism as to what the real problems are! You can't bandaid a wound, if you don't address what in the infrastructure is creating such a large gap that so many NETs are fed up enough to bail after 6 months. Comm'on Korea, it's simple logic. Get it together or keep shooting yourself in the foot!
Uh, Zilchy, a hyphen is your friend.
Resign and re-sign are not the same, you know that, right?
It's Yonhap's fault. An article from the 29th gave those '50% quit early' figures and called NETs "6 month arbeiters" and described it as a 'growing trend among foreigners living in Korea' to use the NET system this way. Pure fantasy made up by the writer, and two articles followed later that day with "(종합)" at the end and corrections made ("among the teachers who quit...") and later the figures were changed. I'll have translations up in a bit.
Darth,
Ya! My mistake. This post sort of hit home and has got me a tad fiery. Interesting how the hyphenated and non--------hyphenated versions almost mean the exact opposite.
I'd really like to see a comprehensive and accurate display of these statistics.
Double-posted because I'm interested in a response, related to English teachers quitting and contract lengths:
Some people have already mentioned that English teachers are audited yearly.
If we don't score greater than 70%, we don't get a contract renewal offer.
So what could be the reason for this additional burdensome and bureaucratic evaluation?
Perhaps it's an incentive-based teaching program being tried by the higher-ups in a fit of experimentational largesse. But I could make more than W87.000 a month tutoring.
No, the real reason may be something more clever.
There is the tiny legal fact that under recent Korean labor law, if you work for an employer more than 2 years, then you are considered a full-time worker. You are NOT a temp worker, regardless of what the contract says, which is superceded by the law. AFAIK, there is no exception for government employees in public schools, although there may be for universities.
Yeah, guess what? You're a full-time employee if you've been rehired for more than 2 years in a row. I bet they never told you that at your contract meetings, did they?
See, the problem is they never really expected you to STAY in Korea. But now that you're here, if you're a NSET, you've got rights.
If they try to fire you, under Korean labor law the burden of proof is on the employer. They must show that you are unfit for your job. But the burden of proof is high. In other words, you effectively have employment for life.
If you don't believe me, contact a labor lawyer or ATEK and I bet they can confirm it.
This is why I don't believe you are correct, Brian. The EPIK program won't go away. Instead, it will simply be merged into another program and regulated into something else.
Hey Brian,
I blogged about this too, thanks for the leg work.
http://www.thewaygookeffect.com/2010/10/korean-news-agencies-either-hate-us-or.html
I wonder how this compares with other countries.
I've returned to Korea to do teacher training. I've taught here before and knew it wouldn't be great, but every facet of this job is shoddy. To think I had three other job offers!!
I doubt I'd have been given a worse apartment or have to teach a more poorly devised curriculum.
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