Teacher Policy in Korea

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Teacher Policy in Korea
Kap-Sung Kim
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LIST OF CONTENTS 1. School System and Teaching
Workforce 2. Attracting Able People into
Teaching Profession 3. Educating, Developing and
Certifying Teachers 4. Recruiting, Selecting and
Assigning Teachers 5. Retaining Effective
Teachers
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• School System and Teaching Workforce
• 1) Structure of Schooling
• Koreas education system based on the 6-3-3-4
  ladder structure with the type of schools largely
  divided into national, public, and private.
• The proportion of private schools in the entire
  secondary schools system is very high compared to
  other countries.
• Compulsory education at middle school level has
  been implemented in rural areas since 1985,
  extended at last to the entire country in 2002.

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• School System and Teaching Workforce

• School system in Korea

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• School System and Teaching Workforce
• 2) Teaching Workforce
• Teacher shortage is an issue confined only to
  elementary school teachers due to the combination
  with by the abrupt cutback on teacher retirement
  age, the subsequent rapid increase in the number
  of teachers who chose honorary retirement, and
  the current government policy to reduce the
  number of pupils per class.
• Secondary schools face an even more serious
  problem of oversupply of the teacher candidates,
  with the rate between teacher supply and actual
  appointment marking 5 to 1 due to the effect an
  outcome of proliferation of teacher education
  institutions and the failure of adjusting the
  student enrollment quota of those teacher
  education institutions.

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• School System and Teaching Workforce
• 3) Teacher Policy Development
• Under the present government, the Divisions under
  the Ministry of Education and Human Resources
  Development (MOEHRD) are in charge of
  conceptualization and implementation of teacher
  policy. This includes the process of collecting
  opinions of various societal sectors and
  consensus building.
• In the past, teachers had been alienated from the
  policy-making process. However, since the
  legalization of the teacher unions in 1999,
  collective bargaining has been underway
  concerning various policy issues.

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• School System and Teaching Workforce
• 4) Teacher Unions and Professional Organizations
• Teacher organizations of Korea are composed of
  the dual main parties of the Korean Federation of
  Teachers Association (KFTA), a
  professional organization founded in 1947, and
  the Korea Teachers and Workers union (KTWU), a
  labour union founded in 1989.
  Governments dual policy refers to dividing
  teachers organizations into the professional
  organization and the labour union and inducing
  each to deal with the matters unique to each.
• The dual policy continues to suffer conflicts
  caused by redundancy in the negotiation issues
  and ineffectiveness of the negotiation
  agreements.

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• 2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
  Profession
• 1) Pathways to become teachers
• Major paths of teacher training are somewhat
  different for each type of teacher. Most of
  elementary school teachers are trained by 11
  universities of education across the country.
  Secondary school teachers are trained through
  diverse channels colleges of education,
  department of education in comprehensive
  universities, teacher education courses in
  comprehensive universities, and graduate schools
  of education.

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• 2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
  Profession
• Teachers are employed by regional authorities.
  After graduating from the teacher education
  institutions and thereby acquiring the teacher
  certificate, a teacher candidate has to pass the
  teacher employment examination administered by
  metropolitan or provincial offices of
  education in order to be a teacher.
• Those who passed the examination are employed in
  the region where they applied. The
  superintendents of metropolitan or provincial
  offices of education employ teachers. Applicants
  to the employment examination must
  possess a certificate for at least associate
  teacher and teacher certificate of university
  second major, and must be below age 41 as of the
  date of announcing the examination. Contents of
  the written examination are studies of education
  and the academic major.

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• 2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
  Profession
• 2) Trends of Students Entering Teacher education
  Institutions
• The teaching profession presented a stable
  occupation with relatively abundant free time,
  which caused the general populace to prefer the
  teaching profession to other occupations.
• Although economic compensation of teachers tended
  to lag behind that in other occupations, since
  the late 1990s in which the national economy
  began to be depressed , people looked at favour
  the stable and guaranteed tenure of the
  teaching profession. So much that high school
  graduates with excellent school achievement have
  increasingly chosen to enter teacher-training
  institutions. In addition, the number of
  teachers who leave schools for other jobs has
  decreased conspicuously.

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• 2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
  Profession
• 3) Attractiveness of Teaching Career
• Teachers are largely divided to the national and
  public school teachers and the private school
  teachers. National and public school teachers
  are the education public servants classified as
  special post public servant according to the
  regulation of the Education Public Servant
  Law. As national public servants, the national
  and public school teachers are entitled
  to the according rights and duties.
• The private school teachers are private persons
  in their legal status. They are bound by the
  employment contract with the school manager.
  According to the Private School Law that contains
  the regulation on private school teachers,
  acquisition of teacher certificate is governed by
  the same regulation for the teachers of public
  schools and those of private schools alike.

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• 2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
  Profession
• 4) Comparative Advantages and Disadvantages of
  Teacher Career
• The Followings are relative strengths of the
  teaching career vis-à-vis other occupations.
• - The Education Public Servant Law and other
  laws protect teachers and their status.
• - Due to fixed work hours, chances for overtime
  work are small compared to other
  occupations. Teachers enjoy more free hours
  compared to other occupations.
• - The tenure system insures very strong
  protection for employment.

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2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
Profession - The public generally trusts the
teaching profession. An opinion survey
showed that teachers and priests are most trusted
in the Korean society. - The work
climate is somewhat more autonomous than in other
occupations. - An adequate amount of
vacation, rest from work, and long-term
overseas study are provided.
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• 2. Attracting Able People into Teaching
  Profession
• 4) Comparative Advantages and Disadvantages of
  Teacher Career
• The Followings are relative weaknesses of the
  teaching career vis-à-vis other
  occupations.
• - The teachers economic status is on a platform
  that is lower than in other occupations that
  require the same level of academic background.
• - Teacher salary is determined mainly based on
  years of experience rather than high
  performance or ability to teach. This structure
  does not motivate teachers to work harder as
  professionals.
• - The promotion system is too simplified and the
  waiting term for promotion is too lengthy.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 1) Initial Teacher Training - Institutions
• The 11 national universities of education train
  elementary school teachers. Universities
  of education were established as special
  purpose institutions solely designated for
  elementary teacher training. They had been
  two-year colleges until 1981, when they were
  upgraded to four-year universities. After
  the status elevation, the quality of those
  universities has gradually improved. Also, there
  are two additional universities, which
  produce elementary teachers. They are
  Korea National University of Education, and Ewha
  Womans University, which is private.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 2) Certification
• To acquire the teacher certificate, a candidate
  has to first earn required credit points in
  teacher education courses and major courses at a
  teacher education institution.
• - For the candidates of secondary school
  teachers, the period of enrollment in
  teachers college is four years and earns 140
  credit hours. Of the total hours, a candidate has
  to earn more than 42 points in a major subject
  and 20 points in teacher education courses in
  order to acquire the teacher certificate.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 2) Certification
• To acquire the teacher certificate,
• - Students who take teacher education
  courses in comprehensive universities are
  required to earn more than 42 credit points in
  major subject and 20 points in teacher
  education courses. They also have to score equal
  or above 80 points in both parts to acquire the
  teacher certificate.
• - Students in graduate schools of education
  are required to earn more than 42 credit
  points in major subjects and 20 points in teacher
  education courses to acquire the teacher
  certificate.
• - After acquiring the required credit points,
  a candidate has to go through an authorization
  procedure in order to obtain teacher certificate.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 2) Certification
• Teacher Status
• - Teacher status is largely divided into
  teacher and associate teacher. There are also
  non-curricular teachers such as counselor,
  librarian, nursing teacher, and practical
  skills teacher. In addition, there are also
  principal and vice principal.
• - University graduates who completed
  teacher-training courses are conferred through
  the non-examination authorization procedure the
  grade 2-teacher certificate.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 2) Certification
• Teacher Status
• - Grade 2 teachers who worked for three
  years are entitled to obtain the grade 1 teacher
  certificate by taking a required in-service
  training course. The associate teacher
  certificate is conferred to those who passed
  the examination-based authorization procedure, as
  aforementioned, is applicable to
  the people at large who have not enrolled in
  teacher education institutions or taken teacher
  education courses.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 2) Certification
• Differences between public and private school
• - The same teacher certificate is conferred
  to the teachers in national and public schools
  and private schools alike. However, the
  employment procedure differs. The national and
  public schools employ their teachers through an
  open competition examination administered by
  local education authorities, which
  are metropolitan and provincial offices of
  education. In the case of private schools,
  principals reserve the authority to employ
  teachers, so that private schools either rely on
  a separate selection method, or follow the
  open competition procedure.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 3) In-service Training
• Types of In-service training
• - The training for newly employed teachers
  are imparted for the purpose of raising the new
  teachers ability to adapt themselves to school
  setting.
• - The post-employment field training lasts
  for six months. Led by the principal, vice
  principal, and advisor teachers, the training
  encompasses instructional guidance and
  evaluation, classroom supervision and life
  guidance, students specialty and aptitude
  guidance, and supervision of clerical work,
  designed to enhance new teachers adaptability to
  school setting.

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• 3. Educating, Developing and Certifying Teachers
• 3) In-service Training
• Types of In-service training
• - The harvest training consists of the
  process of summarizing and concluding the
  two weeks of training, such as presentation of
  case stories, small group discussion, and
  writing and presenting a report. It is designed
  to induce active participation of the trainees
  and information exchange between the trainees
  and trainers through an engaging
  education that relies on presentation and
  consulting.

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3. Educating, Developing and Certifying
Teachers 3) In-service Training

• Teacher in-service
• training institutions (2002)

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• 4. Recruiting, Selecting and Assigning Teachers
• 1) The Recruitment and Selection of Teachers
• Employment of new teachers of national and public
  elementary and secondary schools is
  directed by the 16 metropolitan and provincial
  offices of education through a form of open
  competition. Although the employment
  examination is given separately to the candidates
  of elementary school and secondary
  school, the procedure of employing and
  assigning teachers is the same for both school
  levels. However, individual schools employ
  private school teachers through autonomously
  chosen methods such as open competition or
  interview.

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4. Recruiting, Selecting and Assigning
Teachers 1) The Recruitment and Selection of
Teachers

• Teacher employment examination subjects and the
  points
• assigned to each subject

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• 4. Recruiting, Selecting and Assigning Teachers
• 2) Teacher assignment
• Assignment of teachers in schools starts from
  confirming the teacher quota in need, which
  is undertaken by the MOEHRD through consulting
  with other ministries such as the Ministry of
  Government Administration and Home Affairs.
  Teacher quota is regulated by law. Assignment of
  teacher quota is processed through the
  hierarchy of MOEHRD, metropolitan
  and provincial offices of education, local
  offices of education, and schools.

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 1) Teacher Promotion
• The positions of teachers are classified as
  teacher, vice-principal, and principal.
• Many teachers seek promotion to become school
  administrators. The competition for promotion
  is severe, partly fueled by the traditional value
  emphasizing social status.
• Teacher promotions are decided based on various
  sources of evaluation, including length of
  service, performance score, research achievement,
  and the bonus points for various educational
  activities.

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5. Retraining Effective Teachers 1) Teacher
Promotion

• Promotion criteria for elementary and secondary
  school principal and vice principal

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 1) Teacher Promotion
• The total career length valid for promotion is 25
  years. This is divided into 20 years of
  basic career and 5 years of excess career. When
  there is a temporary leave from work, that absent
  period is excluded from calculating the
  total length of career service.
• Teaching in remote areas gives bonus points to
  teachers. Therefore, those who wish
  promotion work in remote areas, rural schools,
  and special education schools for a set
  period of time to get necessary promotion
  points.
• In some provinces, the period in which a teacher
  worked as a home room teacher gives him or
  her bonus points.

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5. Retraining Effective Teachers 1) Teacher
Promotion

• Teacher Promotion Structure

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 2) Teacher Salary
• Teacher salary consists of the basic salary
  determined by seniority and assorted allowances.
  The salary scale for the teachers,
  vice-principals, and principals of elementary
  and secondary school is a based on a
  unitary salary step. Hence, irrespective of the
  level of school, teachers with the same academic
  credential and seniority belong to the same
  salary step. So there is no difference in their
  basic salary.
• In addition to the basic salary, there are
  various types of allowances whose
  characteristics are very similar to the basic
  salary.

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 3) Welfare System
• The Welfare System is designed to promote
  teachers welfare and provide incentives
  for excellent teachers to stay in the teaching
  profession. It includes vacation,
  pension, and leave of absence.
• The kind of vacation national and public school
  teachers can use includes yearly
  vacation, sick leave, and special vacation,
  according to the Regulation for National Public
  Servants Service and the Ordinance for
  Handling Teachers Vacation. In principle,
  private school teachers vacation follows the
  service regulation of the national and public
  school teachers according to the Article No. 55
  of the Private School Law.

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 4) Work Environment
• Despite the effort made thus far to reduce the
  number of pupils per class, basic educational
  conditions in Korea have not yet reached a
  satisfactory state. Compared to the OECD member
  countries, the number of pupils per class is
  still high in Korea, as shown table on the next
  page. To normalize education and continue
  the reform drive, it is highly important to make
  efforts for reducing the number of pupils per
  class, which is the basic infrastructure for
  education.

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5. Retraining Effective Teachers 4) Work
Environment

• Number of pupils per class in national and public
  schools

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 4) Work Environment
• Types of teachers work are
• - class preparation and teaching,
  extra-curricular teaching during after hours,
  and advising special activities
• - student life guidance through interviews
  with parents and offering counseling to
  students
• - managing classes and a grade level.
• Then, the daily chores of the teachers can be
  defined as the tasks that hinder educational
  activities. These include advising special
  activities, life guidance, and participation
  in the management of a class, grade level,
  and school.

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 5) Professional Mobility
• One of the opportunities for teachers to
  experience a different work environment is
  dispatching to administrative organizations.
  Teachers can be dispatched to administrative
  institutions when such dispatching is deemed
  necessary either to assist implementation of the
  national projects for education,
  research, and academic promotion, or to assist
  administrative organizations in sudden need of
  external help for their administrative tasks.

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• 5. Retraining Effective Teachers
• 6) Retirement Age
• Retirement age of the elementary and secondary
  school teachers is 62 and that of the
  university professor is 65. In 1998, with the
  inauguration of a new political regime, there
  occurred a general cutback on the
  retirement age of all public servants as a part
  of the attempt to making a small and efficient
  government through a pan-governmental
  restructuring. Retirement age of the general
  public servants of grade 5 and higher was lowered
  from 61 to 60. That of the public servants of
  grade 6 and below was lowered from 58 to 57. That
  of the elementary and secondary school teachers
  was lowered from 65 to 62.