12/29/2007

News / Strict Rules Hamper Int'l Education

Foreigners Turn Their Eyes to Other Countries

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The British Council head says Korea’s strict regulations on foreign schools are deterring many international investors from establishing schools here. Also those regulations are slowing down globalization of Korean education.

In an interview with The Korea Times, British Council Director Ian Simm said many British school founders face difficulties because Korea has a lot of difficulties and rules against foreigners and that makes many foreigners turn their eyes to other countries for education investment.

``Many British education providers found there are a lot of rules against foreigners in Korea. For example, secondary international schools are not allowed to have more than 10-30 percent of Korean students.’’ ``But there are not many foreign students who want to study that kind of education, so to make it economically work, they have to recruit Koreans who want to learn English. Also, they are not allowed to return money home even to cover the cost of operating,’’ the British director said.

``It makes it very difficult to operate schools not only for British people but also for people from other countries. They said `education is business.’ For example, the University of Surrey has been talking to a Korean corporation about setting up campuses in Songdo, free economic zone of Incheon, for three years and between times they have been over to China and set up a campus. Regulations are stopping international schools from coming here,’’ he added.

The British Council is the UK’s international organization for education opportunities and cultural relations. Now it operates in 110 countries. In Korea it was established in 1973. The council is dealing with services in education promotion, English teaching, information provision, and examinations.

Especially, the council is highly concerned in English language education and proactively sharing ideas on English language teaching with Korean education authorities. ``We have done English teacher training with Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. We are also working with the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation on testing English and we brought some British consultants to work with them on testing English, particularly for young learners,’’ Simm said.

The council is also willing to help the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development develop a state-run English test which is to be introduced in 2009.

As for the large number of Korean children studying abroad, the British director expressed concerns on the trend. ``We believe very strongly that education should be international but I don't think ― this is my personal view ― it is right that children should go abroad for education in elementary schools. That would not be helpful, it makes children interrupted. I don’t think that's a good idea,’’ he said.

Mentioning high school students or university students should have opportunities to go for overseas education programs, Simm expressed his wish that more Korean students choose British for their international experience. He also introduced strong study fields in Britain such as energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology. Also, the U.K. one-year study program is gaining popularity among Korean workers, he said.

Lastly, Simm pointed out problems of Korea’s visa policy for foreign English teachers. ``We don’t insist teachers of English language should come from native speaking countries. I lived in India for six years and many Indians can speak better English than I do, really they do. Same in Singapore even though they have accents,’’ he said. ``It doesn't matter where they are from and we don't care whether they have college degrees. Only English teaching certificates and high level of English language ability are matter for English teachers.’’

Currently, Korean visa regulation for foreign language teaching, E-2 visa requires an English teaching foreigner should be a native speaker who has been taught at least a bachelor, master or doctor's degree in their mother country.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

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