Job Discussion Forums

[winterlynx1]

We've recently experienced difficulty getting a working permit for teachers who don't have a university degree. We've been told that the degree requirement is pretty much mandatory starting January 2007 (now). Anyone else with similar experiences? Seems like this will make it pretty difficult to reach the demand for foreign teachers.

[11:59]

I don't wish to appear provocative, but how can anyone be a teacher without a bog-standard basic degree? Who would want to have such a person as their 'teacher' anyway? Why haven't they got a degree? What sort of background do they have and is it really suitable/appropriate?

The rule/law you refer to is now being enforced, yes. Actually, it should have been started to be enforced a few years ago, but different areas have been dragging their feet and many employers have simply been concocting fake paperwork (or doctoring pre-existing paperwork). Also � believe it or not � there are also plans afoot to make it compulsory for all FTs in China to hold a PGCE or equivalent (that is, whatever post-graduate qualification allows them to teach in the local, i.e., government system in their home state).

Remember, China is now (apparently) the furth largest economy in the entire world (and is set to overtake Germany no less, which currently sits in third place). With such progress comes improvement of standards and quality of education, at least that's the theory.

[Joe C.]

[Joe C.]

[winterlynx1]

[quote="11:59"]I don't wish to appear provocative, but how can anyone be a teacher without a bog-standard basic degree? Who would want to have such a person as their 'teacher' anyway? Why haven't they got a degree? What sort of background do they have and is it really suitable/appropriate?

This comment (degree vs. non-degree) is outside the scope of the question and has been churned about ad-nauseum in this discussion group.

What I'm interested in finding out is the level to which the policy is being enforced. The policy has very significant implications for teachers, schools and students, and the status of enforcement bears heavily on those implications. Please stick to the question.

[foreignDevil]

fair enough.

I am certainly not a "china-basher" nor am I a "china alarmist". but I see a significant increase in hiring standards within a 10-15 year arc....not a 5 year arc. When you consider salary requirements, how it could be otherwise? When I finish my MA, I cannot continue to work on the mainland for a typical training school salary.

For an idea of just how long it might take for real standards to come into play: look at HK. Base salaries for qualified NETS average around 30k a month. When do you see that happening on the mainland?

foreigndevil

[AussieGuyInChina]

[eslstudies]

[Malsol]

The college degree requirement has been a SAFEA suggestion for over 20 years.

It is not a regulation or a law.

It is being referred to more and more by more and more Provinces.

However, as Joe C. pointed out, this is China where nothing is written in stone.

In China the exceptions seem to overtake the rule.

[Shan-Shan]

Some doomsayers here seem to be striking fear into a few non-degreed/degreed/degreed with only TESL teachers dreading the new and improved regulations on the horizon. Yet I wonder: when spitting is still rampant in classrooms, and a rigorous university education consists of multiple choice examinations and downloading essays from writeforyou.com, I, myself, cannot imagine China adopting a de-weeding FT machine that has a bigger appetite than ones already in place in developed Asian countries.

There are ESL teachers at universities in North America who do not possess "PGCE or equivalent". There are ESL teachers in university positions all over the world with Masters degrees but not "PGCE or equivalent". Were China to take such drastic action as to demand that their FTs be better qualified than the local teachers, the demand for FTs will only rise given the sudden absence of qualified performers.

Schools want cheap teachers. Yes, there are those here, according to their brilliant bragging, who appear in demand even with their skyrocketing monetary demands. Yet when an inexpensive teacher can keep the tuition wave rolling in, why fiddle around with profit, and get that Masters in TESL/PGCE/MYLIFEISESL looking to pay back all those thousands handed over in tuition for their heavy TESL body armor?

It's only ESL, the barrel bottom scraping sector of the education industry.

(wish it weren't so, but that is certainly the prevailing view among its masters)

[AussieGuyInChina]

[Malsol]

[jammish]

[Joe C.]

[Malsol]

There can be considerations much more important than the monthly salary.