Daegu office of education responds to drug bust

Unsurprisingly, the drug bust announced Monday is leading to 'new policies' by the local education office. Newsis published the following report on Monday.

Daegu Office of Education reexamining the management of native speaking assistant teachers

On January 7 the Daegu Office of Education disclosed a plan to reexamine the management of native speaking assistant teachers within its jurisdiction.

Native speaking assistant teachers working for the Daegu Office of Education are all hired by the Ministry of Education-affiliated National Institute for International Education's EPIK program. When being newly hired, native speaking assistant teachers turn in apostilled criminal record checks and Ministry of Justice-mandated physical examinations which include HIV and drug tests.

In particular, during the hiring of new teachers, the Daegu Office of Education is implementing drug education and training to improve teaching ability, as well as having the vice principal of each school head a native speaking assistant teacher management board for consistent overseeing of the teachers.

From 2014 the plan is to further enhance each school's training of and consulting for native speaking assistant teachers.

Regarding this, a midterm evaluation system will be constructed to strengthen feedback regarding attitude towards work and teaching ability, and the office of education will operate a native speaking assistant teacher management inspection team.

The Daegu Office of Education also plans to request that the National Institute for International Education, which oversees hiring, strengthen native speaking assistant teacher hiring standards.

These measures were prepared after a native speaking assistant teacher working for the Daegu Office of Education was involved in the drug incident announced on January 6. That native speaking assistant teacher was dismissed on December 3 after notification was received of the incident.

While the arrest of so many foreign teachers for drugs was sure to have consequences, the fact that the Daegu Office of Education is announcing so many measures all because one of their teachers was arrested is amusing. Of course, you really can't trust westerners, with their 'relatively free attitudes' towards sex and drugs, so more measures to 'manage' them must be announced or the education office will look like it's not doing anything to 'protect the children.' Most of these measures sound administrative and ineffectual, other than to cause headaches for both the foreign teachers and those tasked with carrying out the measures (who already have enough on their plates, to be sure). These measures aren't enough for local papers, mind you, who have penned a couple editorials about the need for ongoing verification of foreign teachers, which I'll translate before long.