Job Discussion Forums

[Modernist]

From what I can tell, the issue she's really running into is one with primary age jobs. Basically from 7-12. What I think happens in China, is that there's a huge market for Pre-K and especially kindergartens, since for a certain class of mother having their kid in an 'English kindergarten' is just as important a social marker as the right kind of car and the right model of smartphone. And since teaching kindergarten in China is a horrible job that burns through people relentlessly, the schools have to offer higher salaries to have any hope at all of getting enough white female faces to live up to their marketing pitches. Which is why they will hire non-natives, older people and even, heavens, men. Basically anyone with a pulse and a passport.

And as we all know, there's also a big market for secondary school, after 12, as the parents begin the multi-year freak-out phase about their kid's gaokao and/or SAT and/or IELTS and all the rest. And then Unis need to keep their Oral English departments staffed, underpaid or not.

What's the missing link? Primary. To the extent there are those jobs, they are mostly in training centers, with the dreaded '3-12' age range, where they'll mix the kids up by age for some reason. A few public and private schools, sure, but not many compared to secondary. Even when they have them they will focus the native speaking jobs at the youngest age (we have a guy at my school's primary division, and he teaches 24 hours a week, 1st and 2nd grade only. I would not do that for double my current salary!). I think Chinese don't put as much importance on elementary ed, and aren't willing to pay for it in teaching jobs. Only in private tutoring for individual kids, and real international schools. That's why she isn't having much luck with her desired work to pay ratio, maybe.

[Teachstorm]

I would look at Aihua English school. Pay should be around 15000, and the Shijingshan location is much cheaper. They are right on line 1 of the subway, so access to downtown is easy. Just an FYI, hutongs are not cheap. They may look like they should be cheap, but they are not.

[getbehindthemule]

With regard to the above post from Modernist. I'm very surprised as there are plenty of Primary school teaching positions in Shanghai. Whether it be in public or private schools, International dept or IB (not inc the true IS).
I teach a mix of grades but next year I will be focusing on the older grades. This is a bit disappointing as I love teaching Grade 1 & Grade 2.
I do agree that in the private tutoring field the market is predominantly kids 5-7 (K-1) and then middle school age. But in saying that several of the students at my Primary schools have a private FT.