Job Discussion Forums

[skarper]

The 'Filipino' menace has been a story to scare EFL teachers with for a while.

I think it's all so much hooey. Filipinos will never be in demand for the private market simply because they are not 'western' ie white.

For public schools they are not Vietnamese and therefore not to be trusted in the state system. In places like Korea strong teacher unions keep out the foreigners.

There will be a rare few filipinos who drift into EFL in other Asian countries but it will never be a flood.

This story is not news - not sure what it is but 90% nonsense anyway.

[TDT]

[mark_in_saigon]

Those sure are some round numbers. 100 teachers, $2,000 per month.

Tell ya what, if I had that kind of a budget, I daresay I would not have to go to the Philippines to plead with them to come over, I would just run a few ads and try to keep up with the response. $2,000 per month in the west should get you about 200 respondents per position, in the Phils, it is anybody's guess, but certainly more than you could keep up with. Like maybe 80% of the qualified teachers in the nation would come over for that rate, considering their pay rate is not that much more than Vietnam's.

This story still seems like bs to me. Interesting that this latest post sharing inside info is the very first post for this individual too. Is this subject your area of expertise, and you decided to join up to clear up the confusion on this deal?

[TDT]

[mark_in_saigon]

[Jbhughes]

Without commenting on the issue at hand, it is very interesting to have a different perspective on the forum, and I hope that you will share more with us, TDT. It's very likely that most of the posters here fall into the usual EFL demographics and having someone that doesn't immediately fit into the usual boxes is great.

Please share your experiences and angle on things here.

[TRH]

Although I think the numbers are a little suspect, one impression I get from reading articles in the English language local papers is that the city government is thinking of hiring these Filipino teachers directly. We need to admit that the full cost to government of our (native speaker) salaries may be significantly higher than the pay we receive. This is not to disparage the centers that both hire us and provide a service to the government but they are businesses that must cover administrative costs and a reasonable profit or why else provide the service. If the Filipino teachers are direct hires, there will be administrative costs as well but the will tend to disappear into the overall school budgets.

As Mark said, a classified add in a Manilla paper for $2000 should flood a school with qualified applicants. To me the root problem is the exceptionally low pay of our Vietnamese peers in the public schools. Schoolteachers are probably underpaid in every country in the world but the problem may be especially severe here. Just like anything else, if the pay comes up, the talent will move in. I bank at Citibank downtown and every single one of the young people I deal with speaks better English than any Vietnamese public school English teacher I have yet to meet. I don't know what they make but I would hazard a guess that for $2000 a month, some of them would consider teaching in the schools. Of course for the administration, paying that much money to local teachers who score over say 6.0 or 7.0 IELTS would cause major resentments. What of the teacher who teaches Geometry or Vietnamese literature? The way around that dilemma may be through Manilla.

[TDT]

[bobpen]

HCMC schools on the fence about hiring Filipinos as English teachers

[mark_in_saigon]

The paper quoted the unnamed principal of an elementary school in District 3 as saying it was �very difficult� to convince parents to pay VND120,000 (US$5.73) per month to cover the monthly salary of $2,000 for the Filipino teachers as asked by the department.
The children have studied with British teachers contracted by the school for many years with parents paying just VND70,000 per month, the principal said, adding that the school�s management board and parents have already agreed on tuitions and fees since the beginning of the new school year.
He also said that even though the teachers are recruited by the department, there is a chance that they will have their contracts terminated immediately if they cannot prove their ability, skills, and working attitudes.
�For Filipinos, English is just their second language, but tuitions are higher than native teachers,� the official said.
Son then said they chose Filipinos instead of native speakers because of financial difficulties, citing a survey as saying that Filipino teachers asked for $2,000 per month compared to $5,000 charged by Australians and $10,000 charged by British.

So, a bit more from the story. First, notice that the cost to the kids is like 6 bucks a month. That is nothing, language centers are charging parents 5 bucks AN HOUR for classes, many of which are not that great. So this whole thing about how much various nationalities expect is ridiculous in that light, as we are talking about public schools taking the low end workers (teachers?) and NOT the elite who can afford or expect the high end teacher anyway. 2 grand per month is more than average here, and can attract plenty of the more highly qualified native English speakers, the kind that can work at those high end jobs. That 10 grand is totally ridiculous, as is 5 for an Aussie and 2 for a Phil, not sure where they would slot the Americans in there, but it is all ridiculous. Notice one quoted official refers to native teachers, which would actually be VN, but he meant to say native speakers of English. Funny how this word native is morphing in meaning here, we are becoming native teachers, they drop the speakers of English part. Just another example of how stupid it all is. These guys are well removed from reality.

[Prof.Gringo]

[bobpen]

[Prof.Gringo]

[bobpen]

[Oh My God]