By Bernama,
Seoul : South Korea will tap into an offshore talent pool to meet the rising demand for native English speakers at home, inviting college students of Korean descent to teach English on a government scholarship, officials said Wednesday.
The Teach and Learn in Korea program is set to start in August, offering young Koreans overseas the chance to teach elementary school children for six months to one year and receive a scholarship certificate from the Korean government.
The move comes as part of President Lee Myung-bak’s English immersion drive to shift from the country’s traditional grammar-oriented method to practical learning, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.
“The government plans to scout young second-generation Koreans in education, finance, science and technology and in many other specialties. I understand that around 500 overseas Koreans will be appointed this year to teach English to elementary school students for a year or two,” the South Korean news agency quoted Lee, as saying to young Korean-Americans in New York in the first official event of his five-day trip to the United States.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology that sponsors the program, undergraduate students who have completed at least two years of university education and who are citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Ireland can participate.
Applicants will be screened before their arrival to ensure that they have not been involved in criminal activity or drug use, ministry officials said.
The overseas Koreans are expected to teach at elementary schools in rural villages, where native English speakers are scarce.
Local college students will team up with them to help the overseas Koreans adapt to the Korean language and customs. Each participant will be provided with round-trip airfare and up to 1.9 million won (US$1,965) a month to cover living expenses and, at the end of the program, the Korean Government Scholarship Certificate.
“We believe the government certificate that shows they have successfully carried out the teaching mission in Korea will help them build future careers,” Chang Ki-won, a ministry official in charge of the project, said, adding that this is not a commercial, profit-oriented activity but a volunteer activity that honors teaching and learning.
With English proficiency seen as the key for success in school and in society, Korea has been eager to draw native English speakers in recent years. The number of native English speakers teaching in Korean schools jumped to 3,800 this year from 146 in 2000.
There are currently about 2,800 more foreign teachers working at private institutes, according to ministry data.