The Korea Herald

‘Kim’s aunt may not have been elected’

Mar 13, 2014

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s aunt may not have been elected to the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, Seoul officials said Thursday, a possible scenario that could suggest her political fate has been affected by the execution of her husband.Kim Kyong-hui, a senior ruling Workers’ Party secretary, has failed to show up at key anniversary events in North Korea following the bloody purge of her once-powerful husband, Jang Song-thaek, in December on charges of treason, sparking rampant speculat
Sex crimes against minors soar 53% in five years

Mar 13, 2014

The number of sex crimes against minors rose sharply in the past five years but more than 40 percent of convicted offenders were released on probation, government data showed Thursday.According to the data by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the number of sex crimes, such as rape, indecent assault and brokering prostitution, against children and juveniles rose 52.7 percent from 1,068 cases in 2007 to 1,631 in 2012.The findings are based on a research conducted by the state-run Korean
Building education model around music

Mar 13, 2014

Wells Cathedral School chief says creative subjects should be center of learning
Pakistani woman out to educate children

Mar 13, 2014

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) ― Humaira Bachal knows firsthand how lack of education hurts her community. She had a cousin that died because his mother couldn’t read the expiration date on a bottle of medicine. She knows women in her neighborhood who died giving birth at home because their families didn’t know to send them to the hospital.“These things are breaking my heart and every time I am raising the question ‘Why are people doing this?’” said the 26-year-old Bachal. “Maybe when my people are educ
[Eye on English] TESOL master’s can help teachers improve while they work

Mar 12, 2014

For Barry Welsh, an English teacher from the United Kingdom, getting his TESOL certification at Sookmyung Women’s University was one of the best decisions he’s ever made.“It improved my teaching immensely and I was very, very fortunate to have a trio of incredible teachers who provided a great deal of inspiration and were all just excellent examples of what an excellent teacher could be,” he said.Taking the course led to him continuing his professional development by enrolling in the MA in TESOL
[Eye on English] English teachers struggle with job insecurity

Mar 12, 2014

Native teachers speak about difficulty settling, hagwon harassment and racism in the classroom
SNU music school mired in professor-hiring scandal

Feb 27, 2014

Seoul National University’s student council on Wednesday called on the school to answer for a recent scandal involving the hiring process for a new music professor.“Because of the scandal, SNU has failed to hire a new professor and students are being deprived of their opportunity to learn,” the council said in a press conference held at the campus in Gwanak-gu, Seoul.On Tuesday, SNU announced that it will not hire a candidate selected by its College of Music to be the new professor of the Depart
For some college students, ‘F’ is better than ‘B’

Feb 27, 2014

Ministry pushes schools to tackle rampant ‘course credit laundering’
Ulsan University aims to be global research hub for cars and shipbuilding

Feb 27, 2014

Ulsan University said Thursday it will work to become the hub for research and development in automobiles and shipbuilding, while training global leaders in these fields.Last year, the school’s Automobile/Ship Electronics Convergence Center kicked off a seven-year plan to train a total of 376 specialists in electronic convergence on the graduate level. The center also seeks to implement itself as the focus of the fields R&D sector.According to professor Cho Sang-bock, the center’s leader and pro
Newly qualified teachers struggle to find jobs

Feb 27, 2014

More than 95 percent of newly licensed teachers are still looking for work due to a shortage of openings prompted by budget constraints, local teachers unions said Tuesday. According to the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association, only 38 of the 990 people who passed the state elementary-school teacher certification exam this year have found teaching posts. This means that more than 1,000 of the teachers that qualified in the last two years are still unemployed, the KFTA said.In most years 30
Exam tips from a TOEIC scholar

Feb 27, 2014

I received a 990 on my first TOEIC and 200 on my first TOEIC speaking test. Pure luck? Absolutely not. I am a driven individual with a strong desire for success. Since I was in junior high school, I have been debating in order to build my logical thinking, critical thinking and speech ability. I also participated in many English contests and received scholarships and awards. Throughout high school, I continued to debate and started to host debate competitions for middle school children. Through
Nearly half of high schoolers get 6 hours of sleep or less

Feb 25, 2014

The Education Ministry said Tuesday almost half of all high school students slept for six or less hours a day, illustrating the academic pressure placed on Korean students. According to the ministry, 44.5 percent of students in high school got no more than six hours of daily sleep in 2013. The rate was significantly higher than the proportion of students in middle and elementary schools, which were 10.6 percent and 3.8 percent each.It is commonly recommended that teenagers get at least seven to
Kim In-chul takes helm of HUFS

Feb 25, 2014

Kim In-chul, the newly elected president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, was inaugurated at the school’s main auditorium, “Barack Obama Hall,” on Tuesday.Kim, formerly a professor of public administration at HUFS, was appointed the head of the school by the school board on Dec. 4. He received 65 percent of the votes by faculty members in the Nov. 22 election.His four-year term will officially kick off on Saturday; he will be succeeding Park Chul.A graduate of the HUFS department of publ
Hanyang University to foster leaders in ‘smart tourism’

Feb 24, 2014

Hanyang University has vowed to become a training center for future leaders of global tourism with its “smart tourism” program, which combines information and communication technology with tourism. “Smart tourism is a very important field in (the government’s) Creative Economy policy,” said Jeong Chul, a professor of tourism at Hanyang University and a member of the school’s Smart Tourism Creative Human Resource Development Group.According to Jeong, smart tourism is an affordable, highly efficie
Parliament passes bill to ban ‘advanced learning’

Feb 20, 2014

Questions mount over bill’s effect amid mixed responses from teachers