Job Discussion Forums

Stephen · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 101

Having seen a little about the governments new plan for English teaching in the state system, I personally think it looks like being a complete mess.

Personally, I think the salary range should be higher NT$90,000 to NT$120,000 with those employed taking a teacher trainer role. That is working on the language skills and classroom teaching of the local teachers. Obviously, this will require teacher trainers with the appropriate qualifications and experience.

However, I would be interested in hearing what other posters think.

Best wishes
Stephen

Aristotle · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1388 Location: Taiwan

If you teach in a Public School in Taiwan you are reinforcing a racist, xenophobic and oppressive ideology. If you really want to help better educate the students of Taiwan, teach in the public, vocational schools. That is were you will find the largest number of students still capable of abstract thought and higher logic. Most of the students in these schools have failed the High School entrance exam. They cannot or will not adapt to the local educational system. They still have a brain, they just haven't been taught how to use it.
Most of them are the sons and daughters of the working class. Poor but intelligent. They are the best hope for Taiwan's future.
Ironically, they will pay you better as well.

psychedelic · Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 167 Location: China

Stephen,
Hi. I don't know anything about the Taiwanese government's new plan for foreign teachers in the state schools. Can you tell me about it, or point me in the right direction?

Thanks heaps! Cool

WorkingVaca · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 135

Yes, please post some links to information about this plan.

Stephen · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 101

I have been trying to find a web link which would do the job, but so far no joy. (Unfortunately computers aren't really my thing.)

From what I've read, the government's plan is this. Place a native speaker in every Elementary/Junior High School. The salary range would be NT$60,000 to NT$90,000. These native speakers will teach students, rather than do teacher training, although how exactly they will be used has yet to be decided (of course as this is Taiwan.) These teachers will be state school qualified in their native country and speak Mandarin (obviously, there is a vast supply of such teachers in the US/Canada/Australia/New Zeland because I'd be suprised if there were many in the UK/Ireland.) Of course the Taiwanese teachers are against the plan (because the native speakers will be earning a lot more than them.) I personally, question the relevance of a qualification to teach say Geography in Canada to teaching EFL in Taiwan, note DELTAs and MATESOLs do not appear to be wanted. Also compared to the private sector NT$60,000 is not particularly impressive.

Anyway, I will do my best to find some web-links for anyone who is interested.
Stephen

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Dear Stephen,
glad to meet you here, albeit unexpectedly! Today, I stumbled across a newspaper item about this native English teacher hiring programme. It was reported in SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST via the DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTUR.
Here is the gist:
Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian himself has thrown his weight behind it. He wants to turn Taiwan into an officially-bilingual society. The intention is to recruit 1000 native English teachers proficient in Mandarin to teach in primary and secondary schools. Their salaries are set at 60'000 to 90'000 NT$. I suppose, the 60'000 NT$ package is for primary school teachers. Note that this amount of money is equivalent to HK$ 13'500.

Interviews will begin in March, for the new season in autumn. Candidates must have a linguistics-related degree, and be younger than 45 years of age. Teaching experience will be an advantage.
Strong opposition has come from local teachers, mainly because of the relatively big discrepancy between their own and expats' salaries!

I guess, we shall see more of the same in the future! Many of us expats are being remunerated far more generously than our Chinese colleagues.

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

TravellingAround · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 423

Does that mean that the the program has been discontinued or they just carrying on recruiting in the hope of getting enough teachers? What is the requirement?

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

It seems that the salaries are good for what many TEFL'ers here in Taiwan might be making. Salaries apparantly are in the $65,000 - $90,000 NT range. And many of these positions are "out in the sticks", so to speak, where the cost of living is considerably lower than Taipei, for example.

Still, I am not convinced that these salaries are competitive enough to bring the "real" teachers over from Canada, U.K, U.S, etc. I've got a good idea what the "real" teachers at the American School in Taipei are making. There's a big gap between the MoE salaries and the salaries offered at AST.

Let's face it, these licensed and qualified teachers back in the States and Canada can secure overseas teaching positions by going through their State or Provincial teacher unions and colleges. And the postions they get pay a lot more than what the MoE is offering - with all the perks, benefits, pensionable service to go alonog with it.

The MoE progam just isn't competitive enough to entice the licensed instructors to come and teach in Taiwan.

Also, it appears now that the MoE has farmed out the hiring for these positions to a number of "buxiban-type agencies." I have a Google News report that's sent to me once a week for "EFL Teaching in Taiwan" and a number of non-government or buxiban-type agencies are actively recruiting for this program in counties around the island.

Additionally, due to the underwhelming respsonse to the program, the MoE seems to not be overly concerned with the high qualifications they were initially seeking in prospective applicants.

If anything, I'd say it would be a great time to apply for this program.

Whether it would be a good idea to apply to teach in this program is the question you might want to ask yourself.

flapjack · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:07 pm Post subject:

Teachers who are qualified enough to work in TW public school systems(under the present plan, which requires a BA and teachers license in a first world country) get paid around 130,000NT(over 4,000usd) per month to work in in America, why would they want to come here and teach for less?

Even the best paying jobs in public schools for foreign teachers here pay 80,000nt per month and that's with earned bonuses added, the base salary for those starts out at 65,000nt per month with bonuses for punctuality, zero days missed (other than what's allowed) and other performance items.

So there's your answer in a nutshell. It would be nuts to work here with a BA and a teachers license and accept such conditions and that's why its not happening.

wood · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 202

TravellingAround · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 423

flapjack · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:55 am Post subject:

Wood wrote
"...90,000 to 120,000 is too high".

Actually I think it's about right for someone with a BA and a teaching license from a first world country(where they would make 130,000 and up)

The problem with TW is no matter how great a teacher they have from a western country, they want to dumb him/her down to Taiwanese methods of teaching. In that case I would agree that 90,000 to 120,000 is too much.

If you want them to disregard their training and do everything the Taiwanese way, 60,000 would be about right

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

TravellingAround · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 423

[quote="clark.w.griswald"]