Teachers, parents protest gov't plan to expand English classes

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- More than 24,000 teachers and parents signed a petition urging the education ministry to give up its proposed expansion of English class hours for elementary school children, calling the move "English sycophancy."

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology plans to lengthen English
classes by one or two hours a week for third to six graders. Officials say the
current curriculum doesn't provide enough English education, prodding parents to
spend on private tutoring.
Critics worry it will only further feed obsession with English and put too much
of a burden on young children who have yet to gain fluency in their mother tongue
and other basic subjects.
"The education ministry should get out of the daydream of English omnipotence and
English sycophancy. As long as the ministry sticks with its English education
enhancement team, educational development in Korea will only remain a remote
idea," said the petition signed by a total of 24,518 teachers and students. The
embattled team is a new-born unit created under the ministry's English drive.
Public English education in Korea starts in the third grade with one-hour class
per week. Fifth and sixth graders get two hours. The ministry plans to increase
the hours to three to four starting as early as 2010.
The government hopes the English class expansion will absorb money spent on
private education and help narrow the growing English proficiency gap between
rural and urban children.
According to 2007 government statistics, private spending for English education
amounted to 6 trillion won (US$4 billion), an enormous portion of the 18 trillion
won spent for general private education.
In a recent hearing, the ministry proposed it will hire 4,000 native speakers to
teach only English conversation in elementary schools. Critics warned it will
only increase the number of irregular and unlicensed teaching staff.
The Korean Teachers and Educational Workers' Union, a progressive umbrella union
of teachers nationwide that wrote the appeal to the ministry, says the policy is
a dangerous idea. Japan starts English education in middle school and France has
only an hour or two of classes in elementary school, it says.
Since the English education was moved down to the third grade from the seventh
grade in 1997, "There has been no study at all about how the early English
education affects children's development," Shin Jong-kyu, chair of the elementary
education committee of the teachers' union, said.
"When the class hours are increased, parents will naturally think the subject is
more important and spend more money on English. Urban parents who can afford it
will do more for their children, ultimately deepening the English education gap."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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