Can everyone teach? If everyone can teach what is the necessity of teacher training programs? Once a great educationist said, ``How you teach is more important than what you teach.'' Isn't it true?
``How to teach'' is taught in teacher training programs and institutions. But in Korea it seems a delusion. There are many so-called teachers in Korea who teach in different educational institutes, especially in academies and in international schools, but in reality how many of them are qualified to teach?
How many of them are trained to teach and have studied such programs to teach well?
Teaching is a profession; it does require training like all other professions. The Korean education ministry has made teacher-training programs mandatory for all those who aspire to be teachers in public schools.
These programs and institutes give training to prospective teachers on how to teach different subjects. There are different methods of teaching for different subjects. An individual who aspires to teach a certain subject has to learn and practice different methods of teaching that particular subject in these institutes.
It's the same for all other subjects and English is not an exception to this. Trainees undergo rigorous training and practice in different schools and then take a public exam to be appointed in the public school system. Then they are considered professional teachers qualified to teach.
However these procedures have become outrageous, when it comes to the academies and international schools in Korea. Anyone can teach in academies/hagwon and international schools if they have a bachelor's degree.
Even in the university system, simply possessing a masters degree enables individuals from the west to teach English. How effective will it be when students learn from these so-called teachers who are not trained to teach a subject?
However good they may be in their subject, if they do not know how to impart knowledge to students and make them learn then, what's the use?
In English academies/hagwon, students usually learn listening, writing, grammar and reading, which are taught by individuals who have a bachelors degree, or sometimes not. In order to teach these skills of English in public schools, teachers are trained to do that.
But when it comes to academies/hagwon, these criteria are relegated back. Why is it so? Why is there a contradicting standard? How can a student master English, or any other subject skills, if he learns from individuals who are not professionally trained to teach?
Even in some international schools in Korea, teachers are hired if they are just graduates and from the west. They are expected to teach different subjects. How can they teach effectively and impart good learning in students if they are not trained?
How can a student understand the content if it's not taught well? Does nationality and appearance make the big difference in imparting quality education? If teacher-training programs are mandatory for appointing teachers in public schools, why not in other private educational institutions?
Why is there such a disparity in hiring teachers among public schools and private institutes? Why does there have to be teacher-training programs?
This is one of the lacunas of the Korean education system. Someone, somewhere, made a mistake by approving the wrong system of teaching and learning. That doesn't mean that the education ministry has to continue to repeat the same mistake every year.
Parents leave no stone unturned to get their children educated in a better way with good education in hagwon and international schools, but because of this breach in the system of education their children are left learning nothing.
The ministry has to initiate ways to tackle this problem by consulting educational experts, and ensure that only a well-qualified and trained person teaches in order to transmit good learning. By doing so, Korean kids in the future can not only have quantitative but also qualitative learning for the betterment of society.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/02/160_39268.html