India, S. Korea to upgrade FTA at ‘earliest’:

India, S. Korea to upgrade FTA at ‘earliest’:

  Context:

• There is low utilisation of the FTA by India due to the complicated provisions in the India-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and South Korea’s regulations.

What are the complications?

• Going by the FTA, Indian English language teachers should be getting opportunities to teach in primary and secondary schools in South Korea, but this is not being implemented effectively in practice.
• Seoul has stated their services may not be needed since many Koreans are now learning yoga in India and returning to teach it in South Korea.

What are the causes?

• This problem arises because the ‘English Program in Korea’ (EPIK) stipulates that those eligible to teach English in South Korea must be a citizen of a country where English is the primary language.
• EPIK teachers must be citizens of one of the following countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, U.K, U.S., or South Africa.