The government will strengthen the requirements for foreigners seeking certification to teach Korean language abroad to ensure they meet fluency standard, officials said Thursday.
Under the current law, foreign nationals automatically receive a Korean language teaching certificate once they earn a certain amount of credits at a Korean university. But some schools have exploited the system as a lure for foreign students, issuing certificates without supervising or checking their qualifications upon completion of academic curriculum, officials at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said.
The revised law will require applicants to take a separate test, called the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), and pass its 6th level, before they are given a certificate, they said.
"Some universities with a poor curriculum have been using the certificate system as a means to draw foreign students, producing unqualified teachers with poor Korean fluency," a ministry official said.
The number of universities and graduate schools that offer Korean language certificate courses in the country has more than doubled over the past four years to 85 from 40. The number of foreign students who receive the certificate was expected to jump to 400 this year from 44 in 2008.//Yonhap
Under the current law, foreign nationals automatically receive a Korean language teaching certificate once they earn a certain amount of credits at a Korean university. But some schools have exploited the system as a lure for foreign students, issuing certificates without supervising or checking their qualifications upon completion of academic curriculum, officials at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said.
The revised law will require applicants to take a separate test, called the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), and pass its 6th level, before they are given a certificate, they said.
"Some universities with a poor curriculum have been using the certificate system as a means to draw foreign students, producing unqualified teachers with poor Korean fluency," a ministry official said.
The number of universities and graduate schools that offer Korean language certificate courses in the country has more than doubled over the past four years to 85 from 40. The number of foreign students who receive the certificate was expected to jump to 400 this year from 44 in 2008.//Yonhap
