Abstract
This dissertation is to examine and analyse the recent government education policy of reducing the budget to hire Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) in public schools in South Korea as well as discussing how the private education industry may benefit from the recent policy. In order to investigate the topic, it is crucial to understand the environment from three different points of view: 1) Is the public education system for English language learning practical enough to help reduce the cost of private education? 2) Are NESTs better than KETs in terms of English learning? 3) Is the recent education policy helping the private education industry enhance their business?
Semi structured interviews were implemented with various industry stakeholders: two parents, one NEST and one owner of a private institute (along with 2 failed interviews with public school teachers which will be discussed later). Evidently, there has been research implemented in related areas previously including: the public education policy, private education and the various aspects of learning English with NESTs and KETs, however, due to the fact that the recent policy was introduced just 3 years ago, this dissertation is fresh research in this area. Author keywords: Education policy, public education policy, public education system, NESTs, native English speaking teachers, shadow education, private education, private tutoring, English education in South Korea.
