Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

A Study on Improvement of the Teacher Recruitment System

In a knowledge-based society where education serves as the national competitiveness, securing excellent teachers is critical for assuring the quality of teachers. Under the circumstances, there is a growing call for change in the teacher training and recruitment system as more attention has been focused on the establishment of various policies for teachers, education system which can nurture able teachers, and recruitment of competent teachers.

Currently, the country is producing around 5,200 elementary school teachers and 51,000 teaching certificate holders annually(as of the end of 2009). They have to pass the Educational Public Servant Recruitment Examination (Teacher Recruitment Examination) to become a teacher of a national or public school.
However, competition in the recruitment examination is fierce as the annual capacity for new teachers is low compared to the number of teaching certificate holders. Therefore, students preparing for the teacher recruitment examination have considerable burden and stress and put much time and money in preparing for and taking the exam. In addition, factors like the types of the examination questions undermine the normalization of the teacher training.

However, the most serious problem is that the existing teacher recruiting system is not appropriate for the comprehensive assessment of aspiring teachers' teaching expertise, view of education, sense of responsibility, commitment, and personality. The most idealistic teacher training and recruitment system would be educating would-be teachers in teacher training institutes with capabilities required for a teacher and selecting new teachers utilizing a proper assessment tool.

In this vein, this study aims at identifying expertise and skills needed for a new teacher, enabling teacher training institutes to educate students with them, and finding a way to improve the teacher training system.