Teacher candidates can apply to both public and private schools in Seoul

From the next year, applicants of teacher selection examination for elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul can apply to public and private schools both at the same time. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education revealed on Sunday its new teacher selection test system that will allow candidates to apply to both a public school and a private one, which is to be implemented for the first time in Korea.

In most cases, private school foundations select and hire teachers in accordance with their own plans. Limited to the schools that agree, some private schools can commission the first screening test to the city’s education office to select candidates. So far, applicants for the teacher selection examination have to decide whether to apply to a public or a private school before taking the examination. The current system was designed to prevent confusion caused by candidates who pass examinations for both schools at the same time.

“There are some problems in the current system, in which outstanding candidates prefer to apply to public schools,” said the education office. As public schools are better than private ones when it comes to treatment or job security for teachers, most of candidates have been applying to public schools. As a result, applicants who are relatively low-qualified having lower scores ended up with private schools. This has been the reason why private schools hesitate to delegate the teacher selection examination to the education office.

Under the new examination system that kicks off next year, candidates may choose the first and second preferences to apply at the same time, limited in Seoul. Depending on the examination result, if a candidate passes the selection examination for the first-preferred school, automatically the candidate is disqualified for the second-preferred school. If the candidate fails to pass the first choice, the education office makes a final decision on the candidate’s pass or fail for the second choice. As public schools are popular than private ones, most of candidates are expected to choose a public school as the first preference and a specific private school as the second.

Previously, a candidate has to choose only one school, either public or private, and failure is confirmed immediately after the candidate failed to pass the examination. Under the new system, applicants may have one more chance from the next year. Even though a candidate fails to pass the examination for a public school, if he or she passes the examination for a private school as the second choice, the candidate can enter the teacher’s profession. Excellent applicants may have more opportunities to become teachers at private schools. A Seoul education official said, “If this system is expanded further, more private schools would commission the teacher selection examination to the city’s education office. It will lead to getting rid of opacity or corruptions around private schools’ teacher selection process.”

nabi@donga.com