I've been teaching at the same high school in Gyeonggi-do for the past 4.5 years and got the axe the other week. On December 23 a memo was sent out to schools by GPOE informing them of budget cuts for the NET program to a number of schools. I found out after returning from a holiday back home on January 17. I was set to go to immigration that day to renew my visa since my school and I had signed a new contract before my vacation. I will now complete this contract to the end of February and then I'm done as the school's budget was already made so there was no room for me without the external funding provided my GPOE.
The copy of the official Korean paper I have from GPOE states that 487 schools in Gyeonggi Province have lost funding that will affect their ability to retain a foreign teacher. 360 elementary schools, 73 middle schools, and 54 high schools have been affected.
Then from February 13:
I went to work on Wednesday and was told that the GPOE would call my school on Friday (11th) or Monday (14th) because they may now reverse their decision at my school (possibly others as well) and provide funding for a foreign teacher. My head teacher told me to wait and see what will happen rather than accept another job offer from somewhere else. From what I have heard, the funding debate is between foreign teachers and free school lunches for the students. What pops into my head is this: if they can flip-flop on this issue so easily and without considering that it's actually affecting people's lives, then what's to prevent them from doing this again on a whim?
Chelleinkorea wrote on another waygook.org thread on the 14th:
I'm surprised to see that nobody has posted anything about the recent GEPIK budget cuts and the fact several people (15 that I know personally) are now jobless.
I am one of these people. I returned on Monday after a holiday in South Africa to be told very casually that my school will not be able to honor the contract they signed with me in December last year because of GEPIK budget cuts.
I have a week and a day to find another job before my contract runs out.
Plenty more comments from teachers in both situations on the two threads. Commenter isanghan speculates
Apaprently (sic), it is coming down to the issue of NETs vs. lunches. However, parents finding out that their children's schools will have no NET is not going over as well as they had thought it would. So, they are considering reversing their decision on funding.
while patch83 brings up a point we could've made in 2009 when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education pulled similar last-minute cuts:
What bothers me most about this, however, is that I got out of the hagwon racket after 21 months and one broken contract specifically to avoid having this sort of thing happen to me ever again!
News of these cuts came out last fall; a Dave's ESL Cafe thread about GEPIK scaling back teachers was the first public mention on the internet:
A few weeks ago I recall being at a bar when one of my friends mentioned a GEPIK coordinator gave notice that there were massive budget cuts, and all schools in Goyang with more than one teacher would lose half of their budget.
Didn't hear much about it since then, until yesterday.
Apparently they want to slash the number of NETs in Goyang down to 20 for all elementary schools, as there isn't a budget for English like there was 2/3 years ago.
For all the nay-sayers that will claim this is a bluff, that they will not 'fire' us, that isn't what they are doing. Instead they will phase us out and not renew our contracts. In doing that, they can tell the moms anything they want.
Even prior to these rumors and announcements, things were changing for public school teachers with, and applicants to, government-run programs like GEPIK, EPIK, and SMOE. In the spring of 2010 all three, and their intermediary recruiters, were avoiding hiring older, experienced foreign English teachers because they couldn't or wouldn't pay them the salaries they'd command. This while the other side of the mouth complains about the perceived lack of "qualified," competent native speaker English teachers in Korea.
22 comments:
Yeah, I took a pay cut at my job. Not only did I not get my raise that I was due, they cut off an extra hundred thou. No worries, left that job, and I figure that on an F visa I can clean up as more NETs get axed, opportunities will develop in the after school program sector.
The stats that an EPIK director showed us at the beginning of the year stated that in 2005 there were something like 2000 NETs in EPIK, where now there are about 7000. That's a pretty huge increase in just five years. It's not really hard to fathom why that growth might have been a bit difficult to sustain. Shame for the people getting the axe though.
I think what it shows is that (generally) parents are the only ones that really want us in schools.
It's funny that 20,000 people in a country get so much attention.
The cuts are to be about 17% of teachers in the GEPIK program. No other budget has gotten cut like this from Korean teachers I've talked to. They said usually other things only get like 5% cuts maximum at a time.
I know some of the girls skip the lunch they have to pay for any way because they are dieting. However, I know one student who only gets to eat at the school- his deadbeat father doesn't feed him on non-school days. My coteacher bought him some groceries.
A good friend of mine is in the same situation. Has been at the same school for 4 years, is at the top of the pay scale and has been axed because he is too expensive.
Get this though, they HAVE a budget for a NET at his school and have hired another NET to replace him at the lowest pay scale. Furthermore, he tried to negotiate with the school that he would take a voluntary pay cut to keep his job, but the school said that it is "impossible by law"!?! WTF?!?
My head teacher told me to wait and see what will happen rather than accept another job offer from somewhere else.
Yeah, sure. Don't look for or accept any other job offers on the very slim off-chance that they decide at the very last possible minute they want to keep you after all.
Great idea.
@Riann: Nothing is "impossible by law" in this country; usually that's slang for 'it won't get approved by the higher-ups, and I'll lose face for even suggesting it'.
@Darth: +1.
For those who were led to believe a public school job was 'safer', 'steadier', or somehow 'better', I hope this is a wake-up call. No job - neither in teaching or elsewhere - is safe or steady. Watch how much trust you put in a government you can't vote for that screws the locals even more than you.
삼겹: I'm in the same boat (on an F visa) and agree that after-school programmes will (and should be) developed more and more.
I think it's just not efficient to have one foreign native English teacher (NET) per school. A well-run after-school program is better for all -- better pay and hours for teachers, less admin for schools, and more NETs to go round.
Darth and Chris: that's true -- there's no such thing as job security these days. NETs (like any employees) need to take steps to ensure their livelihoods. There's no sense in putting yourself in a risky position on a 'maybe.'
@Riann: I agree with Chris, the whole "impossible by law" thing just means they don't want the hassle of looking into the issue any further. When I worked at public elementary schools in Korea, I would hear something similar any time my co-teachers had news they knew I wouldn't like.
The very fact that the administrators are second-guessing the cuts shows that nothing is impossible, if the right people (and enough of them) complain.
Brian, any reason why you didn't attempt to get an official response to the situation from the GPOE or GEPIK? I think that just quoting the opinions of native teachers from waygook and Daves and not at least seeking comment from the two bodies that people are talking about makes the article a touch one sided.
All we hear on this issue is rumor and innuendo, and a decent quote from a reliable ource might have cut through some of the mis-information that is floating around about these cuts.
It's a shame that you didn't take the extra ten minutes to make a couple of phone calls.
As one of those NETs that had a signed contract taken away due to lack of funding, I received an email from Ary Kim (GEPIK coordinator, Ansan) on the matter. It states, "Your school was informed NOT to renew their contract with their GEPIK teacher and this was told to many other schools as well. However, somehow, a few schools (including yours) "accidentally forgot" to read the notice. We informed all schools NOT to renew teachers until we could confirm funding. We made it clear that there was no bugdet for renewal and that we would inform schools when we receive funding".
I'm fortunate in that I was able to secure a new position just one day after having my contract voided. But for the schools to ask their teachers to "wait and see" is ridiculous. How many teachers on E-2s can "wait and see" if they will have a job come March?
I decided to leave SK after one year though it was generally a good year.
My K co-teacher who I like very much made a comment the other day the head teacher at the school was suddently very vague about her contract being continued. This is after they'd offered her a renewal and she'd quit looking at other jobs. She was understandably a bit pissed.
It's early to tell of course, and maybe the information will change in the coming weeks, but a lot of people may get left out in the cold on this one.
Thanks for your comments and perspectives.
Burndog, I appreciate the feedback and you're right that I'm only looking at online comments by a few teachers. It was never my intention to write an "article," but rather to take a look at what is happening to a few teachers in Gyeonggi-do. You, or any other teachers, are more than welcome to interview officials with GEPIK, though I notice that sort of reporting is lacking among English-language blogs, so it's not a criticism that can be put only on me, somebody writing from half a world away on an issue that hasn't gotten any blog coverage otherwise. You or any of the other hundred or so teacher-bloggers are more than welcome to explore it further.
Fair response Brian. I guess I expect more from you because your blog is far more journalistic than most. Thanks for the response...I appreciate it.
"Brian, any reason why you didn't attempt to get an official response to the situation from the GPOE or GEPIK?"
Blogger: Hello GEPIK how are you today, may I please talk to an official?
GEPIK: Ummm, who is this?
Blogger: This is a Blogger who used to be an English teacher.
GEPIK: Ummm, no Englishee just a minute.
GEPIK Official: Hello, what do you want.
Blogger: I want information about whether you are cutting back on NET's because of budget cuts?
GEPIK Official: Click, beeeeep.
Yeah...and if the moderately racist exchange above did take place then the author would simply state that the source was contacted but refused to comment. That's how journalism works. I think in your race to be hilarious you forgot that GEPIK hires English teachers...and their staff speak English exceptionally well.
That's how journalism works.
That's how journalism works in our countries back home. Here, in such a situation, they make shit up and attribute it to you anyway.
Speaking from experience here. Twice.
As it happens, I contacted a GEPIK district coordinator last year about this problem.
Bellow is the E mail
Hello ****,
I have been in the process of trying to arrange a transfer to a different school in the Kyungido board of education.
So far every school has refused to hire me on the basis of my level. I am a level S teacher under the GEPIK contract.
I have learned that the board of education has cut the budget for the GEPIK program and the schools have their preference on Salary level, so most schools have told recruiters not to send them the resumes of teachers of a level 1 ranking or higher.
I finally secured a job interview with a middle school in Anyang last week. Yesterday they called me and told me that I was the best teacher and they want to hire me.
Later that day the recruiter involved sent me a copy of the contract. It was a GEPIK contract and she told me to submit the proof of employment showing that I had only 2 years experience and my TEFL. Which would have put me as a level 1 under the contract.
I told her, as I told the school principal and teachers in the interview that I'm a level S teacher and have a salary as stated in the GEPIK contract as 2.5.
To that I got a reply stating that the school has withdrawn the job offer. The reason given was that the principal and the teachers didn't know that their budget was so low this year.
I was also told that now the school can't afford a level 1 teacher and they are looking for a level 3 or level 2 teacher.
I've been told by 3 recruiters that schools are refusing to accept teachers of level 1 status or higher and It will be near impossible for me to get any kind of employment with any public schools in Kyungido.
Yesterday I was also given a legal document from my current school, stating in English and Korean that I want to terminate my contract from the last day of August.
As I said. I don't want to terminate my contract, the principal wants to terminate my contract, so why have I been told to sign this document?
I hope that you can give me some good advice with these problems.
Thank you.
NO REPLY
I did eventually, after a lot of stress, get a position at a private high school with much more freedom from the board of education.
The less I deal with the Board of Education the better my life generally is.
The situation sucks, but anyway, let's do some back of the envelope math...
Hiring a NET costs about 30 to 40 grand per year.
Lunch costs about $2 per student per day. Add that up at your average school and that's $2x1000x20=40 grand/month for those free lunches if that situation actually transpires.
How does getting rid of a school's NET going to have any real impact on the school's budget if said school actually does start providing free lunches?
That doesn't even address the issue of all these new "English zones" schools are building: fully tricked out media classrooms--costing at least 30 mill each in gov't "grants"--that stand empty 99% of the time.
Darth BABAGA BOBABA
"English zones" schools are building: fully tricked out media classrooms--costing at least 30 mill each in gov't "grants"--that stand empty 99% of the time.
Huh! Please stop pretending you know something or join the Korean journalist union.
jjj,
I have seen with my own eyes some of these "English Zone" media classrooms. Rear-beam projector onto 70" smart screens are probably some of the craziest stuff I've seen installed in these things.
Other than when I (rarely) use them, the rooms stand empty. Yeah, great investment.
Even my hagwon we had this white board to computer system all set up in one classroom that I never saw anyone use. And they installed this intercom system that I think was meant for the teachers to buzz back their attendance numbers but no one ever used it after the first week. The kids eventually just trashed it.
Sometimes this stuff is for show (parents are impressed and hand over their money) but no one trains anyone how to use it, it never gets used, and eventually the kids trash it.
The 70" smart screen was sweet... this was 5 years before CNN got one.
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