Korean Public Schools offer teachers an incredible opportunity to gain valuable experience teaching in a public school setting in South Korea. 
As a teacher in a South Korean public school, you are partnered with a Korean English teacher who you will work with to plan and coordinate lessons. While you won't be in the same class together, you will have the same classes – you teaching communicability and pronunciation, and them teaching grammar and writing.
The Korean teacher will be your greatest asset in adjusting to life in Korea and teaching in a Korean Public School; they will also be an incredible resource to help you learn about Korean culture.
In February of 2010, Footprints placed 167 teachers in the Korean public school system. In August we had over 400 teacher placements for public schools in South Korea.
Learn more about Korean Public School teacher salaries or compare teaching opportunities in Korean private language schools vs. public school teaching jobs in Korea. We also have a number of teacher forums dedicated to discussion about teaching jobs in South Korea that could be helpful in assisting you in determining whether a job teaching in a Korean public school or private language school is right for you. If at the end of your research you're still unsure, call us or e-mail us. We've been placing teachers in South Korea since 2001 and we are the largest ESL teacher placement agency in South Korea.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions that we get asked quite often. Please read through these to see if you have any of the same questions. Our public school forum on the Footprints website is also a great place to ask questions you think other teachers might have. You must be logged in to the Footprints website to view these forums.
No. EPIK will not even look at an application until it has the completed application form and two signed reference letters.
No. You have to have two signed and dated reference letters before we can submit your application for interview consideration.
No. All reference letters need to have an ink signature. They then need to be scanned or faxed to us so we can clearly see the signature. Nothing else will be accepted.
Yes! You absolutely need the original reference letters. EPIK will not accept a photocopy or printout of the letter. You must send the original!
Yes! Please look on our public school forums to see how to calculate your GPA. You can also give your GPA as a percentage (you must sign in to view).
Yourself! If your transcripts come to Footprints, or directly to Korea, then there is no way for anyone to know who they are for without opening them. Please have them sent to yourself.
No. All Criminal Background Checks need to be an FBI Criminal Record Check (Americans only).
Possibly - record checks must be original, no older than 6 months old, and meet requirements as detailed in this guide, i.e: state level, not from a private company etc.
You get an Apostille from the Secretary of State in your state. Check here for more information.
Any notary public can notarize your documents. This could be a lawyer, some accountants, bankers etc. Try the UPS store (in the US).
If you are offered a position, you will need to send all of your documents to Korea to secure that position. Your position is secured once you have been issued a Notice of Appointment after documents have been processed and approved by EPIK in Korea.
No. Wait until you have your visa before you purchase a flight. Your position is not confirmed until you have a Notice of Appointment. You need your Notice of Appointment to get a visa. Once you have your visa in hand, you can buy a ticket to Korea.
Nothing is confirmed until you get a Notice of Appointment.
You only need a PTE (Proof of Teaching Experience) if you were a full-time classroom teacher and want this experience to count towards a higher salary level.
You will be reimbursed 1.3 million won on your first pay check. You do not need to show EPIK a receipt of any kind. They will give all EPIK teachers 1.3 million won on their first pay check regardless of how much their flight was.
Only if you are married; you can put that you are applying with someone on your application, but unless you are married, they will not place you in the same apartment. See our public school forums for a thread about placement of couples.
No. This is a self medical assessment. Keep in mind you will visit a doctor when you get to Korea, so you need to be truthful on the self medical assessment in the application form.
Follow the instruction that we emailed to you. Please keep in mind that we are not tax experts, so if you have any specific questions, please call the appropriate contact. There is also useful information on this in our public school forums on the Footprints website.
It takes up to 45 days (in the US).
You can have someone mail it to you while you are in Korea. You will pay taxes until you turn the form in. You can discuss this further with your school when you arrive.
YES!!! Public schools still require that all applicants obtain all visa documents listed in the visa guide.
Keep in mind that forums and blogs are not always correct. The information on there may pertain to old requirements or one specific teacher’s situation. Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Ask us before you make any assumptions that you ‘heard about’. We’ll give you straight advice about your situation.
Common Mistakes Teachers Have Made
Over the years we’ve seen many teachers say "
oops" throughout the process for various reasons. Most of the time these situations arise from the applicant not reading the instructions completely or not understanding the process completely. Here are some common situations we’ve seen teachers get into, and solutions for those situations:
Apply for your Criminal Record Check as early as you can. They are acceptable up to 6 months old, and sooo many people wait too long before they order it. Do not wait until you’ve been offered a job; at that point it will likely be too late.
Teacher assumed that just a notarization from a local notary was sufficient. Both degree and Criminal Record Check must have an Apostille certificate attached (Canadians get the Korean consular seal instead of Apostille).
The teacher is likely not asking for the correct thing from the notary public. Ask for a photocopy of the degree to be notarized as a true or exact copy. You are not asking the notary to verify the validity of the original degree; you are only asking them to verify that the copy is a true copy of the original.
Teachers trying to save a few dollars use the US Postal service, however more often than not the documents take far longer than expected (we’re talking months), or simply never arrive. Your job for the following year is reliant on this package, so it’s well worth the money to send the documents through a reliable and fast courier.
There are various reasons why EPIK rejects different reference letters. The most common reasons are:
- Letter was not original.
- Signature was not authentic (some were ink over top of a printed signature). EPIK will catch this and potentially reject the applicant.
If EPIK receives your application form and it’s missing even one signature you will have to courier that single document back to Korea. Double check everything before you send it!
Often EPIK will ask an applicant during an interview to revise something about their application: it could be their essay, their location preferences, a reference letter or a lesson plan (for SMOE applicants). Be sure that these updates are made and submitted as EPIK does make notes about these things and are expecting revised materials if requested.
Teachers have removed the staple from the Apostille in order to copy or scan it – DON’T! It may seem harmless enough, but it actually voids the document once it’s removed. EPIK pays very close attention to those staple holes and if there is any tampering at all, they will ask for a new one. Just carefully bend/fold the Apostille to make copies/scans.
