I’ve been teaching abroad in public schools in Asia since I was 22. I first lived in Japan, and worked in an elementary school through a company called Interac. When I worked in Japan, even I could recognize that the environment that I worked in was probably getting to the low point in a long evolution of having Native English Teachers (NETs) in the public school system. After dealing with budget cut after budget cut, I finally returned home because even my pay as an NET couldn’t pay the basic rent and bills in Japan.
A year later, I moved to South Korea, and after a few months of roughing it in a hagwon, I switched over to the Gyeonggi English Program In Korea (GEPIK) system. I taught a year in an elementary school, and then moved to a middle school after more budget cuts.
You may notice that I’m saying the word budget cuts a lot.
There is a constant problem in the public school system when it comes to learning English. Both Japan and Korea want to have their students learn English, obviously. However, to get a NET is expensive, and many programs are not prepared to pay for a NET long term. When I started working for GEPIK in 2011, I came into the company under the looming threat of major budget cuts in 2012. The entire program was feared to be removed in the coming months, and hundreds of teachers were worried about what would be happening in the future. It turns out that while there were budget cuts, it wasn’t as broad and sweeping as feared. However, at the end of December 2012, a week before Christmas, almost all of the middle school and high school GEPIK teachers in urban areas received the following letter:
Dear GEPIK Teachers,
Every year, around this time, rumours and speculations arise about the future of the GEPIK program. The deliberation on the budget for 2013 is still going on by the Provincial Assembly however we have decided to let you know about the GEPIK budget plan for next year.
Due to budget cut, it has been decided that NETs in middle and high schools on the GEPIK budget will not be able to renew their contract in 2013. This does not apply to schools that are funded by the District City Council, or by the school’s private budget. Please note that while these changes apply to contracts in 2013, those currently under contract with their schools cannot be terminated due to this budget cut and schools must respect their contract.
We are sorry to give you the bad news but all of our coordinators wish you all the best of luck for your future endeavours.
Sincerely,
GEPIK Coordinators Team
That’s right. The entire middle school and high school program in GEPIK was cut, unless you’re funded by the city or private budget. People who teach in rural areas were safe, however they no longer will be given their “rural bonus”, which was an extra 100,000원 a month. As a middle school teacher in Bucheon, of course this affected me directly, as well as many of my friends. We are all scrambling for work, with over 250 teachers across the province trying for the elementary positions spared this budget. However, it’s clear to many of us teachers that GEPIK is a sinking ship.
Looking at the GEPIK program and it’s drastic cuts, I can’t help but be reminded of the Japanese equivalent, the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, better known as the JET programme. Once upon a time, the JET program hired over 6000 teachers to work across Japan, with placements both rural and urban. There was a steady rise in employees through the 90’s, until 2002 when there were 6273 NETs across Japan. After 2002 though, there was then a steady decline, with over 300 jobs a year disappearing because of budget cuts. the JET program was expensive, just like the GEPIK program is, because it also helps teachers with their housing. As of 2010, the JET program had only 4300 jobs. The JET schools can now be found in rural towns across Japan, but are far from major cities like Tokyo.
But of course, the want for English teachers didn’t go down. People just wanted to pay as little as possible. This is where the dispatch companies come in. I’ve already covered the difference between a recruiter system and the dispatch system on my post “Recruiters vs. Dispatch Companies”, but to summarize, a dispatch company is a private company who sign a contract with school boards to provide teachers. Often, there are multiple companies bidding for the boards of education, and they’ll go with the lowest cost. Obviously, this means that the NETs are the ones suffering, having to take jobs that pay much less than if they were to be directly hired by the school board (Like JET or GEPIK).
With the GEPIK program making such massive cuts (and the Seoul and national programs doing the same), it’s clear that the era of government hired NETs is ending. Korean families will still want their schools to have NETs, but without the government funding, Korea will probably be transitioning over to the dispatch company method.
Which is a shame really.
Until then, I’m scrambling for my own new job, hoping to get in one more year in the GEPIK program before going elsewhere.
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Hey there, just curious… do you know anything about the current state of GEPIK? Is it just limited to elementary school jobs only now? Thanks! And glad to see you landed on your feet at a new school.
The current state of GEPIK? Right now, it’s pretty much sitting like it was a few months back. Elementary still has funding, for the most part, but middle school and high school are few and far between. There are lots of middle school and high school positions in GEPIK, but you have to be on the end of the subway lines and then further to get the older ages. I lucked out and got one of the only city funded middle schools in my area, so for this year at least, my job is safe. However, when it comes to public school teaching, I would make sure everyone is very clear on the fact that they will be put into an elementary school if they want to be close to Seoul.
I know the GEPIK organization are doing what they can to save money as well, which is nice to see. The ridiculous training that every teacher would do yearly is now done, reduced to first year training only. This has to save them millions of won, because that was a huge undertaking for the program. Hopefully, it will help spare a few more jobs next year. 🙂
I’m curious about which other options you are looking at for next year? Are there any other countries with good government based programs? First it was Japan, and then Korea. Do you have any speculations as to the next big English teaching country will be? I am new to the EFL/ESL world and I started my first job here in a Hagwon last year. Now I really want to work in a public school, but the programs are dropping like flies. I am looking for any hints as to the next big thing, that way I may, and perhaps many of your other readers can be ahead of the rush.
Thanks a bunch in advance for your reply. 😀
Honestly, I don’t know. I’m going to see what comes up next year, depending on how my school here goes and if I want to keep doing this job. As for the future of government based programs, I’m not too sure. The two areas I can think of that I suggest to people are ones where people are going to have much bigger pros and cons to them. Depending on comfort levels, I think South East Asia has some good opportunities. I know lots who have done very well in Thailand. The other is the middle east. Both have their reservations. SE Asia has incredible travel options, but the pay isn’t that awesome. Middle East is buckets of money, but not fun for any kind of minority at all. Or women.
Then there are the two places that people forget: The Olympics requires that a LOT of volunteers speak English (and French but lol nobody actually learns French as a second language.) Which means if you simply follow the Olympics a year or two before they start, there will probably be work. Russia is actually a HUGE ESL hiring location, with or without the Olympics, but they need it more than ever in the past year. Brazil will be needing it more and more as they get ready for the summer Olympics. And then it will be back to Korea for another round of Olympics (however, don’t expect Korea to actually care about language needs.) So Brazil is one I think will have a lot of private jobs available, teaching security firms, media, volunteers, and other people who will be on hand.
My husband and I are thinking of applying to teach English in Korea together. I am an elementary school teacher in the US with 7 years of experience, and he works in a hospital setting although he has a TESOL certificate and BA degree. Do you know what the best route would be for a married couple wanting to live together abroad?
If you’re wanting to work together, and want to go for longer than a year, you’ll have more secure funding with either after school programs that are in the public schools but not funded by GEPIK, or hagwons. Hagwons actually are quite fond of hiring married couples because you have a lower chance of culture shock because there’s someone to live with. You also have the option of you trying to get into a university (which is getting more difficult) and your husband working in the city as well and putting your housing allowances together. If you want to get into Seoul or the suburbs, I’d say give the hagwons a look. If you want to experience a different city, you have a lot more options in terms of public schools and universities (though I hear their public school funding is dropping as well).
Hope that helps!