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2007年1月 From The Korea Herald December 27th 2006The hagwon business
The English language teaching business here in Korea is a cash cow. An estimated 15 trillion won -- about $16 billion - a year is spent on English language private education expenses. This is based on 11.2 million students spending about 1.2 million won a year on classes with hagwons and private teachers. To put this into perspective, Korea spent the most on private education this year among the 30-member OECD, accounting for 2.9 percent of GDP. And those figures are set to increase.
With figures like that, it would be naive to believe that some unscrupulous, if not downright criminal, individuals have seen the potential and are milking this cash cow for all they can get. There are, of course, measures in place to ensure that hagwons are operated in accordance with the law; that teachers are adequately qualified; and that the students are getting the best possible education in return for their money. Unfortunately, these measures are not being universally enforced -- at least not adequately. This is evidenced by the number of complaints received by the authorities from unhappy students and disgruntled teachers. In fact, some hagwons have such a poor reputation it is surprising they allowed to remain open, or that their owners are permitted to continue in business with little or no apparent interference. A suspicious mind or a conspiracy theorist may even suggest there is some collusion between the hagwon directors and the local authorities. The Korea Herald has received numerous complaints from English teachers in connection with breach of contract, apparent tax fraud, and even threatening behavior by hagwon directors. Many of these complaints are difficult to pursue because of a lack of substantive evidence. However, when one particular institute is cited repeatedly for a variety of "alleged" offenses, it is virtually impossible to offer that hagwon the benefit of the doubt, or ignore the possibility that this particular hagwon is receiving preferential treatment from the authorities, for one reason or another. 引用通告此日志的引用通告 URL 是： http://chrisgelken.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2ED692167BC7EF1F!256.trak 引用此项的网络日志
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