[264th]Discounters' Price War / Student Loan Program / Kids of Illegal Foreigners Denied Formal Education

[준행]

넘 늦어 죄송합니다^^

tn토픽_20100130.rtf

Topic1. Who Is Discounters' Price War for?

By Jane Han

Staff Reporter

After the nation's No. 1 discount retailer E-Mart announced earlier this month that it would permanently lower prices for 12 of its most popular daily necessities, rivals Lotte Mart and Homeplus immediately joined in to roll back prices.

But oddly, a week after the price war started, consumers aren't all that happy.

The reason? The discounted items are rarely in stock.

``I came grocery shopping twice this week and bananas were sold out on both visits,'' said one housewife shopping at an E-Mart branch in Yongsan, central Seoul.

Bananas are among one of the items subject to discounts at the retailer. ``Samgyeopsal,'' or pork belly slices, toilet paper and ``Hetban,'' or ready-to-eat rice, are other popular products that have recently been discounted.

Despite the promotion blitz on these products, empty shelves are becoming more obvious at not only E-Mart, but other competing retailers as well.

Company executives say their attractive prices are spurring faster sales, but industry insiders point to a more complex reason.

Manufacturers and contractors are refusing to provide sufficient supplies, said an official of CJ Cheil Jedang, who declined to be named.

``Discount chains are basically telling manufacturers to live with truncated profits,'' he said, ``but there must be more communication and discussion before the industry-wide battle continues because manufacturers are ultimately taking the brunt of the price cuts.''

Representatives of E-Mart, Lotte and Homeplus, three of the nation's largest hypermarket chains, claim that they'll secure adequate supplies to accommodate all their shoppers.

But many consumers don't seem to be welcoming the discount bonanza.

``Lower prices can mean lower quality,'' said Lim Eun-kyung of Seoul YMCA's consumer group. ``Sure, consumers want better deals, but they don't want to give up quality either.''

She said that shoppers wonder if they can trust buying products that have been marked down so steeply.

At E-mart, the price of a bunch of bananas went down from 3,980 won to 2,980 won, while the price of 100 grams of samgyeopsal declined to 870 won from 1,550 won. Homeplus and Lotte Mart have also slashed prices.

``Smart consumers know that there is a reason why certain items cost a certain amount,'' said Lim, who advised shoppers to check the content label more thoroughly on products with ``suspiciously low'' prices.

<Questions>

Q1. How often do you visit large hypermarket chain? what is the merits and demerits of shopping in the hypermarket chain like E-Mart, Homeplus and so on?

Q2. Have you ever taken any advantage or disadvatage through the “Discounters' Price War” mentioned in this article?

Q3. Do you have your own way to consume more wisely? Let’s share the know-how.

Topic2. Student Loan Program

Universities Urged to Refrain From Raising Tuition

College students can get long-term state loans to pay tuition from this spring semester. Under the ``study-now-pay-later" program, student borrowers will be allowed to pay back their loans after

graduating and landing a job. Financially-strapped students welcomed the debut of the credit package, but not without some worries about paying back their debt.

Their main concern is that the interest rate for the loan is set relatively high at 5.8 percent. The rate might go up following possible hikes of the market interest rates, thus bringing heavier burdens to borrowers. Some students described the program as an ``interest time-bomb," which could explode after graduation. Others said the loans will weigh them down until they retire from work.

Excessive debt payment burdens may also lead borrowers to default on their obligations and file for individual bankruptcy. The bad loans then must be shouldered by the government using taxpayers' money. Thus, it is necessary that the authorities make the utmost efforts to make student loans available at a much lower interest rate. They also need to do more to guarantee the success of the program that is designed to help students of poor families study without experiencing financial difficulties.

For this, the government is required to go all-out to tap more financial resources to provide more loans to students at cheaper borrowing costs. Besides, it must provide more financial support to colleges and universities in a move to reduce their dependence on tuition for their school operations.

The government currently sets aside 0.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) for financial support for higher educational institutions. The figure is only half the average 1.2 percent of the 30 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). And 75 percent of local colleges and universities' budgets come from tuitions paid by students, far higher than the OECD average of 25 percent. Against this backdrop, the nation's higher learning institutions cannot join the ranks of the world's prestigious schools, leaving students stripped of their right to better education.

Together with the loan program, the government plans to place a yearly cap on the increase rate of tuition in order to keep colleges and universities from hiking tuition excessively. According to official statistics, tuition fees skyrocketed by 115.8 percent between 1999 and 2009. We urge colleges and universities to refrain from tuition hikes so that the burden on students and their parents can be eased. Instead, they must make efforts to diversify their sources of income in order to ensure that there are no students who quit their studies due to financial difficulties.

<Questions>

Q1. How did you cover your educational expenditure when you study? If you worked part-time to pay for tuition, what kind of work was most impressive? 

Q2. If you are student and you meet the condition of student loan, are you willing get the student loan?

Q3.Do you have any idea that can lessen the economic burden of student whose parents belong to lower-income group?

Topic3. Kids of Illegal Foreigners Denied Formal Education

A state human rights agency Monday urged the government to amend regulations that ban children of undocumented foreigners in South Korea from entering secondary school.

It said the ban breaches domestic law and international treaties guaranteeing equal opportunity for education regardless of legal status.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement, "The rules are dashing the hopes of many children of non-Koreans overstaying their visas who want to advance to secondary school here."

Under the current Education Law, children of registered citizens have free access to a six-year primary school and three-year middle school education. But it limits education for children of undocumented foreigners to the first six years.

Furthermore, primary education is only available on the condition that a document identifying a child's home address is submitted to the education authorities. Such information can be shared with other government agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, which oversees immigration affairs.

"Not many undocumented foreigners will run the risk of facing deportation in order to educate their children," said Choi Jin, an NHRC official.

"We are in talks with legislators and policymakers over a variety of measures to ensure equal education rights regardless of legal status in Korea."

As of August 2008, the justice ministry estimated the number of children of undocumented foreigners at 8,259, many of them of school age. Of them, only 148 were reported to have studied at a primary school, the statistics showed.

"Given the fact that no thorough research has been conducted over the matter, we believe the number of uneducated children may be much higher," the official said.

In 1991, Seoul became a member of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which mandates all member countries to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from all forms of physical and mental violence.

In 2003, the UNCRC urged the Korean government to provide equal rights of education to children of unregistered foreigners.

In response, Rep. Kim Dongsung of the ruling Grand National Party is pushing a bill to offer non-Korean, undocumented children who have lived here for more than three years the right to live here legally and have free access to secondary education.

"The bill is expected to be proposed next month at the earliest," the legislator said.

But the immigration authorities are concerned over possible side effects the proposed legislation will bring about.

"If the bill is endorsed, the number of those overstaying their visa will increase," a justice official said.

A professor in Seoul said, "The government may be faced with a dilemma. But the government should accept any child wanting to study. He cited the so-called "Texas rule" in the U.S. state where a significant number of undocumented Mexicans are living.

"Public schools in Texas welcome all students without questioning the background or legal status of their foreign parents. Once children of illegal aliens are denied a formal education, they will become a liability to the state as some of these uneducated young people may become involved in illegal activity. But once they are educated, they will become assets to the state," he said.

Many parents will not dare to enroll their kids at schools out of the concern that they may be deported if the schools ask for the address and identity of their parents, he added.

<Questions>

Q1. What do you feel when you hear about the illegal Foreiners? Do you feel scary? feel pathetic? or get angry? 

Q2. Do you agree with the opinion that governmnet sould accept any child wanting to study even if the child's parents are illigal foriegners?

Q3. If Korean public school welcome all student without questioning the background or legal status of their foreign parents, what kind of ripple effects will occur?

[지훈 [St. Paul Phoenix]]

헐~

[박범(Frank)]

진짜 12시 전에 올렸네.. 11시59분에 올라오다니!

[준행]

후훗