Job Discussion Forums

[buddhaboyjp]

I do some team teaching twice aweek at an elementary school and the Japanese instructer told me that JET is on its way out.

NOTE: I have never been on the JET program.

Basically, the gov cannot finance this program anymore. Especially for a few reasons, being the cost of housing, and also, they have no experiece, being the fact they are recruited from overseas, fresh out of college.

Anyone else get wind of this?

[ripslyme]

[J.]

similar second hand from someone who had heard it in an ESS meeting. I don't think it was old news to me as I was a bit shocked. Of course we all know about the trend of the BOE's hiring from intermediary companies, but who knew it was "official" that JET is going? I wonder if there has been any announcement from government?

[wangtesol]

Well, it is odd that the Ministry of Education is urging boards of education to use direct hires and the JET Programme as per its 2004 advisement, if it has been decided that the Programme is to be scrapped. I doubt if there has been any official decision. You can always email the man in charge of the ALT system, Mr. Kawano. His email address should be here...
http://alt.150m.com

The current private ALT system of using illegal outsourcing (gyomu itaku) currently under fire from the 90 or so ALTs of Kanagawa who lost their direct hire jobs to Interac. And It is the unscrupulous dealings by Brigham Young University that keeps it afloat by supplying Interac with hundreds of students for these illegal jobs. But hopefully ALTs will be hired directly just like Japanese teachers.

About 25% of the JET Programme has been privatized since 1999.

There is more on illegal outsourcing at the National Union of General Workers Tokyo South website....

http://www.nambufwc.org

[kitano]

If what you say is true about gyomu itaku contracts then what does that say about Japanese Rule of Law. The Ministry of Education directly and publically says they are illegal and yet BOEs all over the country are doing this over multiple years. Sounds to me the rule of law is extremely weak or actually non existent as a system. That makes it very hard to fight from a legal perspective.

[TL]

Does anyone have a link to an official statement made by the government to scrap the JET program?

[JimDunlop2]

I suspect that the law has as many teeth as the pay-your-NHK law... It's illegal if you don't pay it but there is no stated penalty or punishment or consequence if you don't pay it.

It does beg the question. Obviously no one has yet been successful in pursuing legal action against a dispatch company on the basis of gyomu itaku. If anyone had, I would sure like to get more info about it.

Until it becomes unprofittable (in the way of punitive damages being awarded) in gyomu itaku cases, the fact that it's illegal probably won't impress many people.

[wangtesol]

Read the "Does Interac Still have cash flow problems" thread here on Dave's and look for Greatteacherterry's posts for the update on the fight against gyomu itaku.

The fight against illegal gyomu itaku contracts started in 2003. It is an ongoing battle from many different fronts. By the way, the owner of Korakuen English Centre claims to be the first company to use such contracts with schools - and that was 30 years ago!!! So, having started the fight 3 years ago is short time in comparison.

People should get their heads around the idea that just suing a company is NOT the only way to fight an illegal operation. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Finally, if there are more direct hires then it will be possible for more direct hire ALTs at boards of education to unionize. Look at the Nishinomiya ALTs, for example. Their story is online at the General Union (Osaka) website...

http://www.generalunion.org

[shuize]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

It's not just more economical for BoEs, it's easier, too, because if they have any problems, they don't have to deal with foreigners who may not speak the language. With JET they can request people from a specific country but some try to get away with things like "We want a blond hair blue eyes person only". Some write in requests in the margins of the application.

A private dispatch company creates a process very much like ordering McDonalds meal deals. If the BoE isn't happy with the ALT for any reason at all they can just trade them in for another. ALTs from dispatch companies are employees of the dispatch company, not the BoE, so BoE's can trade in the ALT and get a new one, and that way avoid the messiness of firing someone when they have no legal reason to doso. The private dispatch company then needs to find the ALT a new placement, or else they can then lay them off because they have no work to offer them.

On the one hand there are complaints that JETs show up in rural Japan with no real work experience, no Japanese language skills, no teacher training (including no real knowledge of English grammar- the primary means by which they could communicate with some of the Japanese Teachers of English), and no real experience in a foreign countries (apart from vacations with their family when they were kids and then drinking vacations with their friends during university- usually paid for with Daddy's dollars) or even with foreign people in their own country.

On the other, the manner in which ALTs and foreign people in general are treated makes it clear that the closer to the blond hair blue eyed cliche they are, the more desirable they are and many people with teacher training and experience who apply for JET are turned down in favour of the blond hair blue eyed guy, because the hiring panels are very aware of what goe over well in Japan and what doesn't and they don't want the numbers from their own area/country cut. Most JTEs don't really know what to do with an ALT, let alone one who has training and experience. Most Japanese people in BoEs and most Japanese teachers in general have no idea what English native speaking people learn in TESL programmes, and therefore seem to conclude that it must be almost nothing.

JET isn't really on it's way out, the seminars talk about having more JETs nationwide. It's just that more will be elementary only (the primary requirement of that job seems to be Japanese language skills). The number of JHS and SHS JETs will go down, though.

[Glenski]

[buddhaboyjp]

[quote="Glenski"]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[craven]

My personal opinion on BOEs turning to dispatch companies is that it has nothing to do whatsoever with improving the quality of the ALTs they can get, and has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that they can save money.

Small incidentals such as rent subsidies cost the BOEs almost nothing...and they often pay these, or similar perks to their regular teachers in addition to their salaries and bonuses. What KILLS them though is having to pay for all the beauracratic garbage that CLAIR, the organization that runs the JET program, insists on maintaining. There is no reason they couldn't cut half of the money they waste on overpriced airfares and conferences, and put that money into running a quality TEFL course for all JETs. I'm not holding my breath on that one though...

That being said, there's one big reason why I doubt that JET is going anywhere, at least in the short term. Dispatch companies have no problems recruiting people to work in large urban centres such as Tokyo or Osaka, but the only way to get people out to some isolated island off the coast of Hokkaido is to pay them a lot, and not give them a choice on their location, which is something the JET program still does.

[yamanote senbei]