Job Discussion Forums

[gregd75]

Its very easy to explain why wages are very low. I am not supporting it, I am just explaining it.
Market forces.

If you look at jobs advertised here in Daves cafe. Teachers in China and Korea etc get significantly more money than a teacher in Latin America.

There are many more teachers here in Latin America than positions available. Therefore, salaries are lower than they should be.

Add to this the level of competition- even competition in private universities and you get courses being offered at a price lower than they should be. Essentially 'loss leaders' to encourage people in through the doors.

Finally, back in England everyone always complained that teachers, nurses and firefighters should receive more salary because they are doing 'community service' or vocational jobs. There is agreement that they should get paid more, but when the necessary increase in taxes is proposed then people shy away from their responsibility of paying more.

YES EFL teachers should get paid more, but market forces will always be in play here.

On the other side of the coin, looking at SEP teachers, market forces are not working and through the unions there is protectionism and unfortunately for students here in Mexico EFL teachers let their students down (importantly not all SEP/ public university teachers)

Its our responsibility to look beyond low salaries TLWH. Remember, noone makes a person take a job. They do so freely. Professional development, the opportunity to make a difference, living in one of the best and (culturally) rich countries in the world have their benefits too. I know you have talked about these benefits before, but I just wanted to re-iterate them.

[Phil_K]

That makes sense to me! Although I would say it's not as simple as that. It really is a difficult situation. On the one hand, a good business philosophy, in any business, is to find the very best people, pay them what they deserve, and it will be an investment, not a cost. One the other hand, from my own experience, it is often necessary to revise fees to actually get any business, people will always try to negotiate. That leaves very little leeway to pay the teacher what you'd like to pay him, and make any decent profit.

[TheLongWayHome]

Well, looking beyond the low salaries. The way I see it, education here is business, the point of it being to make money, not educate people.

Everyone's selling education to make money.

Private universities/colegios are businesses. They would rather lose a teacher than a paying student, every time.

Most language schools are set up to make money, hence the poor quality of the teaching, the courses and the administration.

Government unis/prepas are a law unto themselves but probably the best option if you're here for the long term. I really like the one I work in. They pay well but a lot of reponsibility comes with these jobs. I could just as easily do nothing and no one would bat an eyelid but the kids that go to these schools really need to learn so I work hard for them and it's rewarding. However, there are teachers that really let the students down. An old teacher once said to me, 'Look around, you'll see two kinds of teacher: profes de vocacion y profes de paga'. He was right.

At the end of the day, the students are the ones losing out and it's a shame.

[Phil_K]

That is probably true of many language schools. But, any business is in the same situation. What many language schools fail to recognize is the basic business principle. Of course the aim is to make money, why else go into business? However, by giving a good customer service, treating staff well and paying them well, the probability of surviving, and flourishing, is much greater! That is to say, caring about the education you are giving, as TLWH says.

Having said all that, the case of Interlingua(cala) has me stumped. Many students say that it is the best language school they have attended, yet they work their teachers like mules to make a decent living. If only I knew the secret...

[TheLongWayHome]

[AdrianG4]

One thing I will give about LIs, it is a fun and liberal teaching environment .. especially when schools are about go under

[Prof.Gringo]