Job Discussion Forums

Fitzgerald · Joined: 10 Aug 2010 Posts: 224

The Tecnologico de Monterrey is one of the country's biggest private university systems, with 31 campuses, many of which house prepas as well as university divisions. Working for Tec has its advantages; for example, it pays dependably on time, which is not something one can take for granted in the international teaching world.

It is a highly bureaucratic institution, and that could drive a sensitive soul crazy. In many cases, the bureaucratic element has floated free of ANY connection to educational mission (or even reality) and simply exists as a persistent, unavoidable, and completely annoying element in its own right.

"Innovations" often come down from somewhere on high, but are very much like unfunded mandates in politics. Whole new course sequences are instituted without any particular guidance as to how they are to be effectuated (no textbooks, no curricular materials, no suggested syllabi). I hear that the 2014-2015 school year will commence a wholesale overhaul of Tec Prepa curricula, no doubt causing mass confusion. I won't be around for it.

However, that is far from the worst tendency in Tec right now. The worst is a massive reduction in the pay scale for international instructors, and it is of this I would warn you. If you see current ads at Dave's or elsewhere for Tec Prepa jobs, you will notice that they offer no specific information about salaries. They used to. Three years ago, the ad that I responded to explicitly laid out a pay scale for new international hires of 20,000 to 26,000 pesos per month, depending on credentials and experience.

At my campus, the new maximum offer for international hires no matter what their credentials and experience is, the last I was told, 15,500 pesos per month. (Existing teachers were grandfathered in at their existing salaries for the time being.) This began with the 2013-2014 school year.

Apparently, there are new bean-counters at HQ in Monterrey. Cost-cutting is visible in many areas.

At the old rates of pay, my Tec Prepa was a passable place to work - not the greatest, often frustrating, but hey, that's the reality in Mexico. I am willing to believe that it was in the upper tier of Mexican educational employers.

But money changes everything. At the new rates of pay, and considering how much one is asked to do, the jobs are not worth having. I put in 60-hour weeks, onsite every day from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM (and often later), and grading at home on weekends. (Technically, we get a break from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, but without a car, there is no place one can go; I just work through.)

I'd be curious to know if teachers at other Mexican institutions have noticed any similar trends towards pay-scale cutting. It would be bad news if so.

ZeeshanMukhtar · Joined: 16 Nov 2013 Posts: 16

Beginning teachers in NSW public schools enjoy one of the highest commencing salaries of any profession. In 2013, four-year trained teachers start on a salary of $59,706. Salary increases are by annual increments subject to satisfactory performance, with our most experienced classroom teachers earning $89,050 in 2013.

Xie Lin · Joined: 21 Oct 2011 Posts: 731

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Enchilada Potosina · Joined: 03 Aug 2010 Posts: 344 Location: Mexico

Christ, if the backpackers are staying away...

philipjmorgan42 · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 30

Hi I started working for the Tec last September. They're paying me about 110 pesos an hour, I work 14 hours a week and after taxes etc it works out at about 5 000 pesos a month. There is the benefit of social security and as someone else said they do pay reliably. The money still isn't great though, and there's a lot of stress and extra work involved, I have to allow for at least double 14 hours for lesson planning, marking, preparing exams etc

Apart from the money side of things, my experience has not been great to be honest. There seems a fundamental conflict between the 'commitment' to academia and the wish to please parents and students. At the end of last semester I was going to fail about 10 students (out of about 40, I had 2 groups). I wasn't choosing to fail them, they flunked the exams, didn't work etc. My boss saw my 'bitacora' (grade table) and basically told me I couldn't fail that many students, that I had to raise the grades of anyone within 5 % of the pass mark, and the only reason she could give me for doing this was that she didn't want the hassle of having to deal with complaints from students and their parents. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

The irony of this is that they are so in your face with how great an institute the Tec is, in the top 100 in the world, values of honesty and all that crap

Then for this current semester, she assigned me a course/level for which there is no text book. Because there's no text book to use, its taught by focusing on a novel the students read, they do projects, grammar, activities etc based on that. Anyway, I planned everything for the first partial using the novel, then yesterday we had a meeting and she told me the copies of the book ordered for the students won't arrive for another 4-5 weeks (over half way through the first partial).

So they can arrange for students to take trips to New York, San Francisco, all over Mexico, but they can't even manage to order really essential materials in time for the start of term!

philipjmorgan42 · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 30

I forgot to say that I'm pretty well qualified, I have a degree and a masters, and a TEFL Scotland qualification, and over a year's experience teaching English

Fitzgerald · Joined: 10 Aug 2010 Posts: 224

MotherF · Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:07 pm Post subject:

5,000 pesos a month!!!!
You gotta be kidding. When I started in Mexico in 1998, I made more than that--and around that time an ISTEM teacher asked me how I could possibly accept such a low salary.

Fitzgerald · Joined: 10 Aug 2010 Posts: 224

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:26 pm Post subject:

philipjmorgan42 · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 30

That's interesting what you say about the director at your campus. My boss, head of idiomas, doesn't even teach languages! she's a maths teacher who has a reasonable level of English but not enough to teach it

I haven't been given any contract to sign yet either, and classes start on Monday... I'm gonna leave at the end of this semester as well, it's been an eye opener working for the tec I can say that much for it!

And that's definitely what I'm earning Mother F, last semester I was only doing 12 hours and they were paying me about 4,600 so I guess with 2 extra hours it'll be around 5.

philipjmorgan42 · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 30

12 hours of classes I mean, guessing that's what you mean by contact hours

Fitzgerald · Joined: 10 Aug 2010 Posts: 224

22Yossarian · Joined: 20 Jan 2013 Posts: 68

I am curious... I have been having ongoing discussions with a campus principal at Preppa for an August 2014 start date since July. I had a good interview, sent a video of a sample lesson they liked, and was even given a prileminary financial package and put in touch with a current foreign teacher, and out of the blue received an email telling me "big changes" are occuring and they cannot proceed with hiring me.

I am not too disapointed as over the last month I have really gotten my feet on the ground at my current job and the thought of readjusting to another school in another country did not seem as appealing as it did two months ago. I like the kids I work with here in Beijing but I would rather live in Mexico and this saved me the tough decision between a job i usually like to go to and a place i would like to live. I am curious if Preppa is making big changes or if they just found a candidate that they prefer.