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By Jhoo Dong-chan
The number of native English teachers is decreasing every year due to a lack of funds at education offices.
According to data from the Ministry of Education Wednesday, of 11,543 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide, only 6,831, or 59.2 percent, have native English teachers this year.
That represents a 7.5 percent decrease from last year's 7,654 schools, or 66.7 percent of 11,470 schools.
In 2011, the figure was 85.7 percent; in 2012, 81.9 percent; and in 2013 it was 75.8 percent.
Likewise, the number of students per native English teacher increased from 727.2 in 2011 to 1,144 this year.
The government used to give subsidies to schools to encourage quality language education from native English teachers. However, it stopped providing the subsidy in 2005 and it has became a burden to local educational offices.
"Regional educational offices suffer from financial difficulties, especially with free school meals and free education at preschools. So they are reducing their budgets for native English teacher employment," a ministry official said.
