A tall order

English teachers is expected to be in high demand as the transition team unveiled its ambitious plan called 'Public English Education Completion Project Roadmap ,’ with an ultimate purpose of turning Korea into ‘the best English-speaking country in Asia’ by 2010.

According to the plan, English classes will be taught only in English by 2010, and the number of newly hired teachers will amount to 23,000, an grand plan that is estimated to cost the government W1.7 trillion.

In an effort to reduce private education spending, a state-run English proficiency test will be produced by next year to replace TOEIC or TOFLE from 2013 as a standard measure for student’s English levels.

Just before opening a public hearing attended by education experts, teachers, and parents , committee head Lee Kyung-sook said “the plan is aimed at enabling high school graduates to communicate in English without private education, and capitualte Korea into the best English-speaking Asian country in ten years' time.” “I am well aware of a reality where people spend more than W1 m for sending their kids to English kindergarten…we can greatly reduce private tutoring spending by starting ‘live English education’ which makes students speak English on a daily basis from elementary schools," said the head.

But how to supply sufficient numbers of capable English teachers in such a short period of time remains a big stumbling blcok in the road to the "best Enlgish speaking country in Asia." And many people remain skeptical that the plan can achieve its intended goals, not least becuase various solutions have failed to educate students even to barely communicate in that language, let alone being fluent. In reality, even English teachers who spent their whole life in teaching it are often found to be in lack of a decent level of communication ability.

Incoming government’s plan will be completed and publicly announced by next week.