Seoul is planning to phase out more teachers

[SoundWave]

.

[Spongeblob]

To quote my distant ancestor .....
FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!! 

[sejongthefabulous]

Here is my take on the average

2.1*12 =25.2 salary average
.2*12 =2.4 pension -everyone pays it and the school matches whether you get it or not
.1*12 = 1.2 healthcare
.5*12 = 6.0 rent -average
2.1 severance -average per year whether collected annually or not
2.0 year bonus
---------
38.9 -we need 3.1 more out of speculation
-Hidden costs such as training, taxes, recruitment, employee outings, office expenses, and administration costs easily will make up for this.
I forgot to add OT....lots of teachers make OT and that could easily eat up 3.1

[justanotherwaygook]

What NET earns 42mill won a year?

Yeah really-- I know it's not me!

Let's do the math for a Level 1 teacher....

Salary 2.7mil x 1 = 32,400,000
Severence  2,700,000
Pension 243,000 x 12 = 2,916,000
Rent 400,000 x 12 = 4,800,000
Airfare 2,600,000

Total 45,416,000won (taxes/health and other deductions not included)

The article says the average NET ears 42,000,000w a year. Remembering we have to include rent into the equation, their estimate is correct. We aren't cheap!

Pension is half that.  You pay 4.5% (121,500) out of your salary.  The school only pays 121,500 into your pension.

[FloridaGator314]

Brace yourselves, China. White people are coming!

[elprofesor]

i also hate to be the bearer of bad news but, there is only one thing on Korean students minds and that's

Testing.

bottom line is

if you do not know how to improve their test scores or improve their speaking it's out the door pretty much.

the funny thing is, the CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) is now going to change to NEAT (National English Ability Test) with an

English speaking portion for high schoolers.  Students must know how to pass that speaking portion, but if you can't upgrade their

speaking, it's difficult.

Is this job at NET getting harder? absolutely.  Are they looking for qualified applicants? absolutely.  the strong will survive until

they remove all NET's.  Korea always goes by a trial and error type of experimenting at schools or the government.  So, once

they see that it doesn't work, they'll revert back to their old ways.  It just takes patience people. 

[Incredagogue]

Stick me in the corner all day while my CoT yammers through entire classes in Korean.....
......
"These NETs aren't effective enough!"

[airina]

We all heard the rumors and stories about government cutting down on foreign teachers budget cuts.
Looks like Seoul area is first at action.

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111208000850

This was yesterday's article about foreign teachers budget cut [English version].
It only mentioned reducing the numbers

http://news.naver.com/main/hotissue/read.nhn?mid=hot&sid1=102&cid=307180&iid=547011&oid=034&aid=0002343000&ptype=021

http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1001040121

And these articles are Korean version of the news posted on the 7th of Dec.
I understand you don't read Korean or some of you do.
Korean version says all the native teachers at high school (seoul area) will not be renewed next year.
Only less than a half number of native teachers will be renewed for middle and elementary schools.
And by the year 2014, the foreign teachers program will shut down permanently.

Both versions are a little different.
I'm not trying to scare anybody or making judgements here.
I just read both version of the articles and thought we all should know so that all of us can plan our lives.

We are far away from home and I feel these kind of information are very crucial to us but we know, with communication problems some of us have, some teachers don't get informed enough.

 

[Squire]

I wonder if this will result in more parents putting their kids into English hagwons. A hidden cost of axing public school NETs perhaps?

[dchrzano]

@scholes well if you think about it:

Salary: 2,000,000 = 24,000,000 per year.
Housing: 1,000,000 (rent plus deposit) = 12,000,000 a year.
Flight: 2,600,000 (both ways)
That is 38,600,000 right there.
Plus add on renewal if you say more than 1 year= 2,000,000
Staff dinners and other resources, then yea it is about 42 million.

[tails]

I think there is already a topic on this, but yours refers to some good sources! I really don't know where that leaves teachers in Korea, as I imagine the majority of foreign people working in Korea are teachers.  I think the office of education should make an official statement as opposed to these anonymous tip offs.  They should also speak to the relevant embassies as there will be a lot of people far from home with concerns.

Where that leaves people, I am not currently in Korea so I am going to contact relevant people and decide whether to pursue my ambitions.  I suspect China, Japan, Thailand will take up a bit of the slack.  Brazil and Chile may also be in need of more teachers and some will just go home.  I would think that the more inventive teachers out there may start their own academies which could prove fruitful.

What do the more knowledgable waygookers think as I could be making wild assumptions?  It would be a shame for Korea to return to its namesake of the hermit country.

[confusedsafferinkorea]

I would think that the more inventive teachers out there may start their own academies which could prove fruitful.

Can't do that unless you are married to a Korean.

[hilarity ensues]

I really don't know where that leaves teachers in Korea, as I imagine the majority of foreign people working in Korea are teachers.

This is only happening in Seoul/Gyeonggi, not all of Korea.

[VanIslander]

The majority of foreigners in South Korea are NOT teachers. Not even close.

Of a million foreigners here, about a hundred thousand are teachers, at most!

[Davox]

The majority of foreigners in South Korea are NOT teachers. Not even close.

Of a million foreigners here, about a hundred thousand are teachers, at most!

I believe the majority of foreigners in Korea are either unskilled labor or married to Koreans.

It may be fair to say the the majority of "westerners" here are either teachers or military, though.  Both groups that many Koreans (especially of certain political parties/leanings) wish would leave Korea.

[Keuka]

SMOE, EPIK and GEPIK are pretty much entry-level jobs, which are going to be phased out.  Why not set your sights higher and go for a job in a university?  Even if you go to China, or elsewhere, you  will still have the same dilemma of more ambition than qualifications. 

[Keuka]

I don't think this issue  is only about the money.  Over the years, since the time when more and more NETs started pouring into the public schools, the complaints about how more than a few NETs not attempting to fit in with Korean society, getting into trouble, causing problems, communication problems, not keeping commitments/promises, acting out, complaining, being more worried about their next vacation trip during the semester break than their classes, being difficult, having to be lead around by their KT by the hand to the bank or elsewhere, NETs posting about their schools and KTs on-line and badmouthing them, not getting along with their KTs and/or schools has slowly risen.  The resentment of the average NET, who makes more than a KT with usually more education/training has also risen.  The issue about how much NETs are making are a euphemism for the deeper, underlying issues and problems, which I think the Korean government has decided to deal with sooner rather than later.   Even in the hagwon sector, some hagwon owners have stopped hiring NETs for various reasons.  Wake up.  This is about more than only the money.

[Burndog]

I don't think this issue  is only about the money.  Over the years, since the time when more and more NETs started pouring into the public schools, the complaints about how more than a few NETs not attempting to fit in with Korean society, getting into trouble, causing problems, communication problems, not keeping commitments/promises, acting out, complaining, being more worried about their next vacation trip during the semester break than their classes, being difficult, having to be lead around by their KT by the hand to the bank or elsewhere, NETs posting about their schools and KTs on-line and badmouthing them, not getting along with their KTs and/or schools has slowly risen.  The resentment of the average NET, who makes more than a KT with usually more education/training has also risen.  The issue about how much NETs are making are a euphemism for the deeper, underlying issues and problems, which I think the Korean government has decided to deal with sooner rather than later.   Even in the hagwon sector, some hagwon owners have stopped hiring NETs for various reasons.  Wake up.  This is about more than only the money.

Nobody thinks that this is just about money...the money discussion is related to a quote within the article. 

[ah000]

There seems to be some people saying Native English teachers are making way too much money, but I don't think that is the case.  I think the wage is a at a good level now.

1. Korean teachers get a pension of about 2 million won when they retire, I was told this by a co-teacher.  I got a letter from the pension office saying that if I worked until I was at the retirement age I would make 650,000 won a month.  So Korean teachers at public schools get 3 times the amount of pension as we do. 

2. It is cheaper to pay a little bit more money and get higher quality employees.  Because the school will have lower turnover and more experienced people, and be able to be more selective about who they hire.

[justanotherwaygook]

2. It is cheaper to pay a little bit more money and get higher quality employees.  Because the school will have lower turnover and more experienced people, and be able to be more selective about who they hire.