Job Discussion Forums

Durian Tango · Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Posts: 65 Location: HCMC

There seem to be a lot of differing viewpoints as to whether a degree in English is required to teach ESL in Indonesia. Some schools, such as Wall Street Institute, maintain that it is must, while it seems other schools such as EF consider it optional. Other schools like TBI seem to sometimes say it's a must and other times hint that it's optional.

From my knowledge, the law has changed and it specifically says only teachers with a degree in English can teach English at language schools. It seems though that the farther out one gets from Jakarta then the more loosely the rule is applied (whereas for schools in Jakarta it seems the rule is applied much more heavily).

How many teachers here now in Indonesia actually have a degree in English and how many don't? It would be interesting to take a survey and find out. Also, it would be interesting to know if those that don't have a degree in English had any trouble getting a KITAS or not. For those without degrees in English, has it driven them to 'acquiring' an English degree without technically attending university?

Any volunteers to go knocking on school doors and finding out? Does anyone have a personal story as to whether they have had to deal with this regulation? Let's hear it!

Personally, I luckily have a degree in English so it's been a non-sequitur for me. I know others may not have been so lucky though...

beefer · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 238 Location: java

i just finished getting my kitas processed yesterday and it was a nightmare........ my degree is in communications and the people in the jakarta office were not willing to budge at all...... it took a lot of spin doctoring on my part and a 3 hour meeting with my boss before they backed off
from what i was told, it appears that they arent concerned about your degree if ur working in a language school, but if u are post secondary (as i am currently) it becomes an issue
anyway, from the time i submitted my documents until yesterday- it took 3.5 months...i've been here for many years and its the first time i have ever had any sort of issue with getting a kitas...... so i would say that in my experience- it appears that there are people out there who are taking the new regulations seriously..........those regulations were passed in 2009, and i had no issue the past 2 years (same position- same submission of documents).......makes me think that it might have just been a random selection of my documents to look into

polo III · Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 6

I also have a degree in communications. Glad to see you got your kitas. Makes me worry less. Very Happy

Bule_Gila · Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:11 am Post subject:

I have my College Level degree in Journalism and creative writing. I also have a CELTA and TEFL cert along with ETS Cert. for TOEFL. When I tried to get my KITAS I had a few problems but the whole process took only 2 months. I agree, the further away you are from jakarta or other major cities, the more laxed the regulations. I'm currently in East Kalimantan...