Online university 'awarded master's degree to a dog'

Executives from leading companies are boasting qualifications from a so-called “university” that awarded a master’s degree to a dog, an investigation has found.

Senior figures – including a psychologist and a nuclear industry executive – were found to have bolstered their CVs with awards from the American University of London.
The move came despite claims that the institution is handing out qualifications with no academic work required.

A probe by the BBC’s Newsnight programme found that the university was willing to award a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree to a fictitious student in exchange for a £4,500 fee based on his prior work experience.

But the student – Pete – had submitted a fake CV and actually turned out to be a dog from Battersea Dog’s Home.

The institution, which offers online degrees and postgraduate qualifications in a range of disciplines, such as business, law, IT, arts and humanities, insisted it was “not a bogus university”.

But the disclosure will raise fresh concerns over the market in online degrees and the extent to which institutions that are not formally regulated by the British higher education system such as AUOL can market themselves in this country.

The Newsnight investigation found that hundreds of senior executives boasted on social networking websites that they had qualifications from the university.
This included Dr Rita Bowser, a senior nuclear industry executive who was in charge of selling a new generation of reactors in the UK. The programme said she was awarded a doctorate in business after submitting what she described as "significant amounts of coursework".

Her employer, Westinghouse, the US power company, told the Telegraph she was well qualified for her job based on 30 years’ experience and two previous degrees, including a master's from the respected Georgia Institute of Technology.

Newsnight named another figure, Dr Robert Oakes, a psychologist from Birmingham, who gives expert testimony in court cases. He was awarded a PhD five months after first submitting work, it was claimed.

He told the programme that he had spent 18 months on his own background research and was already a registered psychologist based on a previous degree.
The university, which has more than 100,000 students worldwide, is registered in St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean and falls outside the jurisdiction of the British higher education system.

George Gollin, from the University of Illinois, said that AUOL’s degrees "did not stand up to scrutiny".

"It doesn't have authority to award degrees,” he said. “They are not degrees. They are pieces of paper and I'm guessing they are not able to sell very many degrees into countries where English is the first language."

But the university insisted most of its study modules were on par with those from other distance universities and only awarded degrees based on work experience in exceptional circumstances.

In a statement, it added: "We are not a bogus university… and have always been upfront about our status. We have not applied for accreditation with any American, British or other official agency. Many graduates go on to higher education or hold important positions on the strength of our degrees."

Taken from HERE

In other news...

MBA AWARDED TO DOG POSING AS A CAT 

Looking so much like a cat, this dog-in-disguise should
never have been able to get an MBA. It's totally stupid to
think of cats getting MBAs. What is the world coming to?

Interesting video

Lyrics...

Music video...

I wasn’t taught how to get a job 

but I can remember dissecting a frog 

I wasn’t taught how to pay tax 

but I know loads about Shakespeare's classics 

I was never taught how to vote 

they devoted that time to defining isotopes 

I wasn’t taught how to look after my health 

but mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell 

Never spent a lesson on current events 

instead I studied The Old American West 

I was never taught what laws there are. 

I was never taught what laws there are!!! 

Let me repeat - I was not taught the laws for the country I live in, 

but I know how Henry the VIII killed his women. 

Divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived 

glad that’s in my head instead of financial advice 

I was shown the wavelengths of different hues of light 

but I was never taught my human rights 

Apparently there’s 30, do you know them? I don’t 

Why the hell can’t we both recite them by rote?! 

I know igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks 

Yet I don’t know squat about trading stocks 

Or how money works at all - where does it come from? 

How does the thing that motivates the world function? 

not taught how to budget and disburse my earnings 

I was too busy rehearsing cursive. 

Didn’t learn how much it costs to raise a kid or what an affidavit is 

but I spent days on what the quadratic equation is 

negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared 

minus 4ac over 2a 

That’s insane, that’s absolutely insane. 

They made me learn that over basic first aid 

How to recognise the most deadly Mental disorders // or 

diseases with preventable causes // How to buy a 

house with a mortgage // if I could afford it 

‘cause abstract maths was deemed more important 

than advice that would literally save thousands of lives 

but it’s cool, ‘cause now I could tell you 

if the number of unnecessary deaths caused by that choice was prime. 

Never taught present day practical medicines, 

but I was told what the ancient hippocratic method is 

“I’ve got a headache, the pain is ceaseless 

what should I take?” Umm... maybe try some leeches? 

“Could we discuss domestic abuse and get the facts 

or how to help my depressed friend with their mental state?” 

Ummm... no but learn mental maths 

because “you won’t have a calculator with you every day!” 

They say it’s not the kids, the parents are the problem 

Then if you taught the kids to parent that’s the problem solved then! 

All this advice about using a condom 

but none for when you actually have a kid when you want one 

I’m only fluent in this language, for serious? 

The rest of the world speaks two, do you think I’m an idiot? 

They chose the solar over the political system 

So like a typical citizen now I don’t know what I’m voting on 

which policies exist, or how to make them change 

mais oui, je parle un peu de Francais 

So at 18, I was expected to elect a representative 

For a system I had never ever ever ever been presented with 

But I won’t take it !

I’ll tell everyone my childhood was wasted 

I’ll share it everywhere how I was “educated” 

And insist these pointless things don't stay in school !

Thanks for the suggestion Ojan (2017)


Teachers respond...

Classroom culture shock

An Australian teacher trainer learns a lesson (or two) in East Java 

The Australian government currently supports a number of programs that aim to increase skill levels of teachers in Indonesia and promote cross-cultural exchange. These programs offer exciting opportunities for those looking to expand their horizons. But how prepared are teachers from Australia in taking up this challenge?

Towards the end of a year-long teaching contract in China, I began scouting around for my next adventure. On the internet I found an advertisement for teacher trainers for the Islamic Schools English Language Program (ISELP) in Indonesia. One of the goals of this program was ‘to increase the proficient use of best practices in English language teaching and learning’.

This, I knew, would be a challenge! Education institutions in Indonesia commonly employ traditional teaching methodologies such as rote learning and text translations. These methods are poles apart from what is currently considered best practice in English language teaching.

Working at a pondok pesantren

I was selected to join the program and was placed in a pondok pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in East Java for 18 months. My brief was to work with junior high school English teachers and assist with the implementation of the new national competency based curriculum introduced in 2004. Other program goals included raising the English language proficiency levels of teachers and promoting cross-cultural exchange. 

Pondok pesantren are a cheaper alternative to public sector schooling. Established and led by a kyai (religious teacher), pesantren aim to provide both general and spiritual education in a family-like atmosphere. While most students board, a significant number are day students, especially if they live nearby.

A pesantren can comprise several schools, representing primary, junior and senior secondary levels. In addition to divisions due to educational stage, pesantren commonly offer both the curricula of the Department of Religion and the Department of National Education. For example, at the junior secondary level students can select to follow the Madrasah Tsanawiyah stream (the Department of Religion curriculum) or the Sekolah Menengah Pertama stream (the Department of National Education curriculum). Initially this complex system took a while to work out.

Within the pesantren where I was posted, each school had its own administrative staff, headmaster and deputy headmaster. Teachers sometimes work across the schools, despite different timetabling systems. From an outsider’s perspective, it seemed quite hierarchical. Decisions were made at the top and passed down through layers of administration to those at the bottom. Information did not always reach those who needed it. And positions of leadership for women were largely confined to the primary sector.

Tools for teaching

Teachers in Australia can expect a certain level of resourcing in terms of access to equipment such as computers and photocopy machines, library resources, and teaching support materials. In comparison, teachers at pesantren are thinly resourced. They are expected to pay for their own photocopying, and then recoup the money from the students. Because the school photocopier was broken throughout my 18 month placement, teachers had to travel to the nearby town for photocopying. Library resources were non-existent, and there was very little in the way of teaching support materials.

  

Pesantren management often choose to spend limited resources on symbolically valuable items. Language laboratories, a big ticket item, are a popular purchase. They feature in promotional brochures and help create an image of the pesantren as a modern institution with state-of-the-art technology. But their educational value was limited. Half a dozen portable CD players or even a small computer lab would have wider cross-curricular application. But despite limited application, language laboratories continue to pop up in pesantren, even though there is no money to mend existing broken equipment.

In the classroom, English teachers use student workbooks often chosen by the principal. These are purchased from visiting booksellers and are very cheap – around Rp4000 (about 50 cents) for one semester. Unfortunately, the low price is reflected in the quality of the texts, which contain numerous errors. Good quality texts are available, but at around Rp25,000 (A$3) for a year, they are considered too expensive for the students.

For teachers, many of whom have never seen the curriculum, the workbook provides some level of guidance. Despite being trained practitioners, pesantren teachers receive a much lower wage than their government school counterparts. Many work seven days a week in two or more jobs to make ends meet. The cost of supplementary materials and the time burden of lesson planning mean that teachers are often dependent on the workbook. The standard practice is for each class to work its way through the text, learning the vocabulary and set dialogues and translating each passage into Indonesian – the hallmarks of a passive approach.

As the workbook was the main resource for teachers, my challenge was to use this resource in active and innovative ways. The teachers I worked with were very enthusiastic about learning and trying out new ideas. They tested out running dictation and jigsaw reading activities, which the students found much more enjoyable than translation exercises.

A key task was to find practical ideas that both motivated students and required little preparation or resourcing. Teachers taught large classes (around 40 students) often in crowded, poorly maintained classrooms with the barest minimum of equipment. At first, teachers commented on how unmotivated students were to learn English, but as time went on more reported the small successes they were achieving in the classroom, especially in terms of increased student motivation.

In addition to new teaching methodologies, teachers were increasingly able to arm themselves with more teaching resources. A key component of the program was to build up a bank of teaching resources that supported a more communicative approach to learning English, and that required minimal preparation or photocopying. By buying a laminator we could create reusable teaching resources.

We established a centre to house these new resources. This raised a new set of problems. Libraries are virtually non-existent in many pesantren, and there is no ‘borrowing’ culture. Teachers constantly had to be chased up to return borrowed materials. There was a sense that once you got your hands on something, you held on to it.

A learning journey

Most of the teachers were very keen to participate in professional development activities. Workshops about teaching methodologies and planning sessions were reinforced by team teaching and demonstration lessons. These lessons were an important component of the program, as they provided teachers with the opportunity to see the ideas presented during workshops in action and to practise new ideas in a supportive environment.

For me, working in a different cultural context meant stepping outside my comfort zone to some degree. Although it was a challenge learning to adapt to such a different working environment, there were many rewards on both professional and personal levels. Perhaps one of the most valuable professional lessons was how to live without a photocopy machine! (Most teachers in Australia feel their right arm has been cut off if they don’t have access to such piece of equipment). Upon returning to the classroom in Australia, I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the choice of equipment and resources available. I had become quite comfortable with working with minimal resources; in Java there was a sense of freedom in being less reliant on technology.

On a more personal level, it was a rewarding experience to discover new ways to communicate and negotiate with people. In Australia we are used to being direct in our communications with each other, but this is generally viewed as impolite in Indonesia. As I learned to be more indirect in expressing my ideas or requests, I found I was better understood by others and vice versa. There were fewer instances of ‘miscommunication’ based on cultural differences.

During my time working in Indonesia, I found I learned as much about the intricacies of my own culture as I did about Indonesia’s. The ability to be flexible and maintain an open mind are key factors when engaging in cross-cultural programs, as is a willingness to listen and learn from those around us. Before leaving Australia, I felt confident that my level of cultural knowledge, Indonesian language ability and experience teaching abroad ensured a reasonable degree of preparedness. Looking back I can see that I was only part of the way there. The reality was that after 18 months in-country, I was still learning as much as I was teaching. ii

By Louise Blair, from INSIDE INDONESIA ...HERE

Troubled Teenagers

Some of you might find this interesting. Here are some questions put to an expert on the behaviour of "troubled teenagers" in Britain (he's called Charlie Taylor... I went to university with him!) Here are some of the questions. The names of the questioners are screen names from an online forum. What advice would you give to the parents who asked the following questions? His answers can be found at the link below.

Letter Q - Quicklookbusy: How do you approach 'encouraging' a teenager with college work? My daughter is 16 and just started her A-levels. She worked hard during the run-up to exams, but during the rest of the year, she had a very laidback approach - according to her teachers as well as me. She really wants to go to university but I know if she doesn't step up a few gears, this won't happen. Any attempt to ask about work is met with a grunt! Should I back off and just let her get on with it, even if it probably means she won't work to her full potential?

Letter Q - Bigtillymint: How do you deal with a hormonal (budding teenager) new year seven who is struggling at home to manage the demands of secondary school - wanting more independence and self-management, while still needing a lot of adult support with homework and so on? What do you do about 'teenage' tantrums and rudeness in tone of voice as well as what is said?

Letter Q - Nottirednow: If you really have very well-behaved, children don't you worry about them just a little bit? Is a bit of rebellion actually a good thing? Can you suggest a way to encourage a teen to speak out more in class? They are not lacking in ability but it's not going to help them get their choice of university.

Letter Q - Lovemygirls: My daughter is only 11 but has had an attitude problem for a few years now. I can mostly deal with it by saying firmly "I will not be spoken to in that tone" and refusing to cooperate with her if she won't cooperate with me, which usually sorts things out. But since she started secondary school, she is being very argumentative and is changing her views on a lot of things to try to fit in. How should you deal with children getting more freedom?

Letter Q - Pathfinder: I've got three teenage sons and I got divorced two years ago. I've struggled to establish a relationship as their divorced mother as they only stay with me at weekends. My eldest seems to be burying much of his emotions, energy and time in his online games and chatting online to pals. His school work has plummeted, but his dad doesn't seem worried and doesn't communicate with me.

I do have some ideas - a friend recently suggested I draw up a contract with my sons for when they stay with me, that would help me keep my house tidy and raise the topics of what we all consider acceptable and what not.

My eldest can get angry and agressive when I try to set bedtime and internet rules, but I know I need to do them - somehow - but how? He is far taller and stronger and angrier and louder than I am. Shouting isn't the answer.

Letter Q - Thesecondcoming: My teenager goes to bed after a perfectly nice evening with us and in a lovely mood, but wakes up like a banshee from hell and doesn't speak to any of us - including her two-year-old sister! Unless we're all going in in the night to piss her off then I really don't know where we're going wrong.

She sometimes seems so desperately unhappy and is really unpleasant to all of us. Then, for no reason, snaps out of it. I am finding it very difficult to access my loving feelings towards her sometimes. Is this normal? Or is it because we've had another baby?

Letter Q - Castille: I'd like to know how to re-teach my 13-year-old daughter some basic rules of courtesy and politeness. She drives me insane by pushing past people instead of letting them pass (like on the stairs or on to a bus), by not looking at someone who is talking to her and not greeting people properly. These are all things she once knew how to do!

Letter Q - Redpanda: My 15-year-old daughter has just turned to the dark side and I'm struggling to readjust and remind myself to zip it so I don't react and provoke further rudeness/"I know best" responses/sulks/silences/retorts/tears/etc (delete as appropriate). My current problem is how not to react to her 'boot face', which is becoming an increasingly familiar reaction when she doesn't like what I'm saying. It drives me mad!

If I have said "no" to a request that is unreasonable and explained why, then how do I cope with the inevitable sulks that will ensure, without getting wound up at her behaviour? My husband tells me not to take it all so personally, but the problem is that I do! I want my lovely girl back!

Letter Q - Musicopsy: My eldest, who is 14, despite being quite difficult when she was little, seems to be generally sailing through the teenage years with only the odd strop. We have a very close bond and get on well together. My youngest, 11, has up until now been the easiest child to raise you could imagine. But recently, she's stroppy and difficult. Virtually everything I ask her to do is met with, "What are you going to do about it if I don't?" It doesn't matter how reasonable the request.

It's not just with me, either. For example, she was told recently to take her feet off of the seat at the theatre. She knows she shouldn't have had her feet there in the first place, but she just said "why should I?" to the lady. It's like she has to challenge everything. I worry that I am getting closer to my eldest because she is easier. I don't want the bond with my youngest to slip away. But spending more time with my youngest just seems to give her more opportunity to be stroppy with me.

Letter Q - Stayingdavidtennantsgirl: My 13-year-old son has little or no empathy with others and has real difficulty controlling his temper at home - he has sworn at me, and the only effective sanction seems to be removal of his iPod. He can be so cold and nasty - and yet other times he is loving and cuddly.

Even the dog is scared of him - he says he hates her and wants nothing to do with her, and in the past, when he called her to go for a walk with him (after the stress of getting him to accept that it was his turn to walk her), she has run away and hidden under the desk.

I am looking into dyslexia as a possible cause for this defiant behaviour. Can you suggest anything that might help? I am literally at the end of my tether. I suffer from depression, and feel like a total failure as a mother.

 

What advice would YOU give to the parents above?

What answers do you think Charlie Taylor [the British expert] gave [either see below in the comments or go HERE]? Do you agree with his advice?

Do you think the advice to parents and analysis of teenager problems is affected by the culture in your country?

There are several more questions and answers to be found HERE.

A first-class essay? Yours for just £660

Business is booming for 'private tutors' who write university students’ essays for them.

Writing a university dissertation is, as every student knows, a labour of love. It requires long hours in the library, along with careful shaping and structuring of one’s material, plus countless litres of late-night black coffee. Or, alternatively, £300.

That’s if you’re only aiming for a 2:1, of course. If you’re really serious about academic success, you can pay £660 and get a First.

How? By hiring one of the growing number of companies that will supply anything from 1,000-word essays on the causes of the English Civil War to 10,000-word treatises on international marketing strategies. Not surprisingly, voices in academia are being raised in anger.

“Students who go down this path are cheating themselves,” says Jo Wynn, of the Quality Assurance Agency, which monitors standards in higher education.

“If we were to find someone using such a thing, our response would be ferocious,” says Professor Tom Ward, pro-vice-chancellor for academic affairs, at the University of East Anglia. “Not only would they not get their degree, they’d be kicked out. It is just so undermining of the whole system.”

Maybe so, but it’s pretty simple to do. Just go on the internet, type “essay writing”, and a host of firms will be clamouring to help with your coursework. “Where A Student’s Life Becomes Easier,” purrs the website UKBestEssays.com; less reassuring is its claim: “We provide piece of mind.”

Indeed, while these companies promise round-the-clock customer support and teams of 200 to 4,000 highly qualified essay-crafters, producing pieces of work that will pass all plagiarism tests, some appear to be more, well, questionable.

Question number one: are they in the UK? Not UKBestEssays. Despite a website showing Union Flags, the girl at the end of the phone says she’s in Delaware in the US. And when the rather distant-sounding man at Essaydom.co.uk is asked if I can visit his office, he says he can’t give me the address because I “might bring the police”.

“We all get tarred with the same brush,” complains Jilly Walden, quality manager at UKEssays.com, based at the same address (in Arnold, near Nottingham) as Degree Essays (www.degree-essays.com) and Law Teacher (www.lawteacher.net)

“Yet, unlike other companies, we are happy to publish our address, and we are happy for students to visit us; we have got academics in-house. Nor do we condone plagiarism. It’s made very clear to clients that we don’t supply essays; we give model answers around which they frame their ideas. We see it as no different to a lecturer pointing students towards a document in a library. As far as we know, 99.9 per cent of customers use our products correctly.”

But it’s hard to believe someone would pay £660 purely for a stimulating read. However, the founder of London-based Oxbridge Essays, Stratos Malamatinas, who says his firm (www.oxbridgeessays.com) gets 10,000-plus orders per year, stands by the ''it’s-just-a-framework’’ stance. “It’s made explicit to our customers that they should use our material merely as inspiration, and they should express themselves in their own words,” he declares.

“That said, 75 per cent of our customers are foreign students who, although talented, can’t express themselves as well in English as in their own language. British universities are happy to take their money, without checking their English. There’s a real greediness among British universities; students are left to struggle, and are forced to turn to a private company, rather than getting help that should be supplied by the university. It’s not just foreign students. Most UK students who come to us are profoundly unhappy with the tuition they get, [with] no formal instruction in the writing and structuring of essays.”

Especially when that essay is 90,000 words.

“I’m fine on research, and I can talk about the subject till the cows come home, but I need guidance in putting material together and expressing it in academic terms,” says Geoff (not his real name), who is doing a PhD in marketing at University College London, and is paying Oxbridge Essays to help him with his 400-page-plus thesis.

“They are writing the guideline, so to speak, and I am mimicking it in my own words. It’s going to take a couple of years and I’ll have paid them a five-figure sum, but it’s worth it. I am aware that some people do just take this kind of work and pass it off as their own – so I don’t want my real name in The Daily Telegraph, in case people think that’s what I’ve done.”

The same applies to “Dan”, a second-year student at Bristol University, who, in his first year, sought outside help with an essay on tragedy in Shakespeare. “I felt like I wasn’t getting much academic direction,” he says. “The number of students at lectures was enormous. I was getting no real feedback.” Instead of buying an essay off the internet, he turned to the tutorial agency Bright Young Things, which spent three and a half hours with him (at £60 an hour) planning his essay. Result? A 2:1 grade, but it was all his own work.
“We don’t write people’s essays, we merely teach them essay-production skills,” maintains Oliver Eccles, one of Bright Young Things’ senior tutors.

That’s not to say that tutors don’t get asked to do a bit of proxy essay-penning, though.

“I’ve had some difficult conversations with parents and students who want me to write the essay,” says Michelle Okin, who runs the tutorial agency Rose Okin (£40-£75 per hour). “But how are they going to stand on their own feet if they’ve always had the stabilisers on?”

It’s a powerful argument. Indeed, many would argue that the spread of tutoring in higher education was inevitable, considering how prevalent it has become in secondary and primary education. But the more immediate question for any student contemplating an essay purchase, is more likely to be – can I get away with it?

The answer is yes, if the work has been written by the kind of brilliant academic mind the websites claim to have on their books (Stratos Malamantinas says he has essay-writers who earn between £20,000 and £70,000 per year).

“If it truly is an original work, then it will get through the plagiarism-detection software,” says Will Murray, whose firm supplies Turnitin, the plagiarism checking system used by most UK universities. “But sometimes the writing has been outsourced to India, or America, and the grammar and expressions will reflect that. I’ve even seen cases where the student has left in the name of the person who actually wrote the essay.”

Ideally, prevention is better than detection. By inviting students to discuss essays, university tutors can monitor the sudden arrival of unfamiliar thoughts and ideas.

“My instinct is very much against the combative 'We don’t trust you’ approach,” says Professor Ward. “Rather than going for the Orwellian system, whereby we monitor our students’ internet traffic, I favour making them understand the only people being ripped off by these short cuts is them.”

Finally, there is always the worry that the immaculately written document you have bought is not as fresh as claimed, and may contain great chunks of pre-plagiarised text that will set off the digital detection sirens.

“So the question,” says Will Murray, “is how confident are you that the essay you are handing in, that has been written by someone you have never met, is 100 per cent original?”

LINK

Link to "In Praise of Plagiarism", an article defending plagiarism.

Seoul Phasing Out Native English Teachers

Daily news about Korea from the on-line edition of the Chosun Ilbo national daily.


Seoul to Phase Out Native English Teachers [HERE]

Most native English-speaking teachers in about 300 high schools in Seoul could lose their jobs next year. In its budget for 2012, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education cut about W4 billion (US$1=W1,126) for 225 native speakers teaching at high schools.

If the budget is approved by the city council, most of the high schools in Seoul except for 30 English "immersion" and international schools, can no longer afford a native speaker.

Currently 1,245 native speakers teach English conversation at primary and secondary schools in Seoul, 895 of them subsidized by the city office of education and the rest by the city government or district offices.

"A native speaker earns on average W42 million a year, and we concluded that they are not effective enough to justify the cost," a spokesman for the city office of education said. "A survey conducted for us showed that Korean teachers with outstanding English and teaching skills are more effective in the long term."

The office also plans to reduce the number of native speakers teaching at elementary and middle schools from 2013.

Students from low-income families will likely bear the brunt of the policy. "Students from well-to-do families may find lessons from native English-speakers dull because they've been attending private tutoring institutes since they were young," an education official said. "But those from poor families should be given the opportunity to learn English with native speakers at school." He added it is "too early to reduce the number of native speakers as long as Korean teachers aren't good enough to replace them."


Students Prefer Korean English Teachers to Native Speakers [Nov 30th 2011]

Korean students prefer to be taught English by Korean teachers with outstanding English conversation and teaching skills, even though they are more satisfied with the lessons of native English-speaking teaching assistants than of their Korean counterparts, according to a survey.

The survey released Sunday by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education was conducted among 28,761 students, 11,980 parents, 2,406 Korean English teachers, and 595 native English-speaking teaching assistants at 1,282 primary and secondary schools in Seoul.

Some 62.2 percent of parents and 53.7 percent of students wanted Korean teachers with good English skills. Only 26.9 percent of parents and 29.7 percent of students preferred native speakers.

Yet in practice parents and pupils were more satisfied with the lessons of native speakers than with Korean English teachers'. Some 54.2 percent of parents said native speakers are more helpful in improving their children's English skills, as against 39 percent who were happy with the lessons of Korean English teachers.

Likewise, 60 percent of students were happy with native speakers' lessons, compared to 55.3 percent said for Korean English teachers.


Native English Teachers to Face Tougher Evaluations [Dec 2009]

Native English language instructors in Korea will soon be required to undergo stricter screening to validate their teaching skills.

The education ministry says it will utilize the National Institute for International Education to boost the number of English teachers selected for individual assessment next year from the current 1,300 to 2,000.

The increased figure will allow the institute to closely monitor and better allocate English instructors to schools throughout the country.

A mandatory 10-day training program will be provided for new instructors on teaching techniques, class management and Korean culture.


Foreign Teaching Pool Expanded to Include More Countries [Dec 2008]

The Ministry of Justice announced Sunday it will allow only nationals of countries including English as an official language that have signed an agreement with Korea to work as assistant English teachers from next year.

The Justice Ministry is currently working on the agreement with India and expects it to be signed next year. So far, only the nationals of seven countries whose mother tongue is English -- Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States -- have been eligible to work as native English teachers.

With the new measure, member countries will be expanded to include the likes of India, the Philippines and Singapore, where English is one of their many official languages. Currently, there are 4,332 native English assistant teachers in elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.

However, nationals of such countries will have to meet tougher qualification requirements than those from the countries where the mother tongue is English. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has decided to make both a teacher's license and a bachelor's degree in an English-related major as prerequisites. Nationals of the seven countries whose mother tongue is English have much more lenient requirement of having graduated from a two-year community college or having finished at least two years of a four-year university course.

A qualification to teach in private English institutes will continue to be limited to nationals of the seven countries.

SEE ALSO: LINK




Old stories, I know, what what do you think of the issues that these news items touch upon?