Job Discussion Forums

[YAMARI]

There is a job posting called certified teachers ony. They are only offering 7000 rmb. Is this some kind of joke 7000 a month for certified teachers.

[eddy-cool]

Why would that be a'joke'??? It needn't, andmanycertified teachers are working for a more typical Chinese salary than for sky-high wages.

[Robin53]

I am a certified teacher in my country. Getting certified wasn't easy. First I had to do a university degree, and then be accepted for the one year intensive training in my subjects ( main subject language teaching, and a second subject). As well as learning how to teach my subjects, I had to learn a lot of other stuff about schools, students, and pedagogy to get the post-graduate diploma. Following a police-check, I then got a job in a state school and had to be supervised for two years. After that I got certified. I have to pay a fee, get a police check, and renew it every two years.

In China, my current salary at a university is 3,200 RMB a month. My teacher certification has no meaning in this country and does not bring any financial or other benefits. I've been teaching here for more than 4 years. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't happy though and enjoy my job. I am professionally satisfied. All my certificate means is that I've been well trained to do my job.

[Zero]

Robin, shouldn't you be eligible to teach at an international school?

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

Robin53, there's something wrong with your story.

[waxwing]

I agree, it's difficult to take Robin's story at face value ... could and should be earning anything from 5-10+ times what you mention there. And you wouldn't have to sell your soul to the devil for that.

The thing about selling yourself short is, you don't have job satisfaction either - nobody expects from you what you're capable of, you are not stretched or challenged. It's not just about the money.

[LongShiKong]

[YAMARI]

Robin is a troll who probably hires for a company or school. The base salary at a very poor university is 4500.

Here is another gem- Beijing Science university or whatever its called (dont want to say the exact name) is asking for two teachers with an MA in English and they are offering a whopping 4000 salary.

I thought China was getting better? Looks like same old low salaries.

[Robin53]

Thanks for all the comments. No, I'm not a troll (check out my replies in various other topics), and my story is true. I've worked twice in China on contracts which paid a lot more, but prefer the state schools. I've mainly worked in high-schools in China, and am a trained, certified high-school teacher in my own country. In the jobs where I worked here on good salaries ( one was a year's contract on 7,500 almost 5 years ago, and the other was a six month contract on 9000 minus tax last year) what turned me off was the high stress levels. I was the meat in the sandwich. The bottom part of the sandwich were the expectations of parents (and some of their spoiled brat children) who had paid whopping fees to have western education. The top part of the sandwich was the layer of Chinese management staff who didn't understand the curriculum but behaved like control freaks or little Hitlers in trying to get me to jump through various hoops and otherwise interfere in teaching processes which they did not understand.

The remainder of my time in China at a college and a high-school, and now at a university have been stress-free. These place are more akin to what I'm used to in my own country. Once I've been observed teaching a few times by Chinese English teachers, and once I've ironed out any difficulties with classes by administering my own teacher-assessment with my students (they don't have to sign their names on the feedback form I give them to get a more honest response) then I'm left alone to get on with the job of teaching. Thats why its professionally satisfying for me as a certified teacher - I get recognised as a competent teacher in the state schools, but not in the commercial operations. The downside is the low salary, but thats a whole different topic, and I accept the status quo.

[Robin53]

LongShiKong - I forgot to reply to your questions. About being over-qualified - yes, of the 50 or more teachers I've met in the past 4 years in the same remote province where I live I have only met one other certified teacher and he had given up teaching. Most of the others have some sort of ESL certificate or a university degree. Among them are some fine teachers. I have no judgemental feelings or attitudes towards western teachers in China who are not well qualified.

Yes, you have a point about my time here affecting future employment prospects, but I don't think that way. For a start, I'm not many years away from retirement age, and getting a job in a high-school at my age in my country is not easy. Also, I actually enjoy living and teaching here and find it fulfilling in many ways.

As regards the lack of pedagogical professionalism among Chinese teaching colleagues I disagree. Despite the lack of training and certification processes for teachers in this country, you have to look at the results with student outcomes. The students actually learn to speak English! Also, my Chinese teaching colleagues communicate with me in English. Many of my certified colleagues in my own country who taught a foreign language could barely scrape by in the spoken language.

[Laurence]

@Robin53

[kev7161]

I want to throw my hat into the ring, if I may.

I am a certified teacher from the states (well, my certification has since expired during my six year stint in China, but I have the degree and some years experience from back home under my belt). When I first came here, it was for an adventure, something different, mid-life crisis change, if you will. I was making 4,000 a month to teach a bunch of kids (some good, some bad, some . . . well, never mind) "spoken English". I had no qualifications to teach high schoolers spoken English short of my imagination, a good text book to follow, and my experience in classroom management. The second year I got bumped up to 5,000 It was sometimes challenging, often pleasant, and I developed good relationships with some of my students (not THOSE kinds of relationships! get your head out of the sewer!). Anyway, after two years, I was prepared to return home and then I impulsively answered an advertisement from a school looking for someone with a degree in elem. ed. and the salary was double what I was making at the time. I went and interviewed, was intrigued and stuck around. Now it's 4 years later and I'm handily making more than 3X what I originally made in China. I enjoy my job and we (mostly) have very good teachers in our department (well, not according to one colleague in our staff meeting today - apparently he's the only qualified soul there who seems to know what he's doing while the rest of us are bad teachers because we dared to comment upon the occasional lazy student who refuses to do the work given to them - - "there are no bad students, only bad teachers" was the suggestion! But I digress.)

The teachers I have met have come and gone over the years, some with degrees in other things besides education, some who claim they have degrees/experience (when they obviously don't/didn't), and some who are "merely" TEFL trained. Some of the teachers in my department don't have a background in formal education but I feel they are wonderful teachers! They work hard, study the curriculum, adapt where they find it necessary, ask questions when they are stumped, and generally give top-notch lessons any time I'm observing them (announced or unannounced). We bounce ideas off each other and, I feel, have a good system going. We often have a bump in the road with let's say, "different" kinds of teachers, but they come and go so quickly we just regroup and keep on going. So I am very happy with my job, but I don't think I could ever go back to working for 4000 rmb (or less!) but I think anyone should be able to choose their own path without any of us being naysayers to them. Yes, there will be teachers willing to take jobs for peanuts thus unfortunately keeping those wages down, but there are plenty of higher-paying jobs out there for those that are qualified and/or experienced and willing to do the job asked of them.

[xiao51]

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

xiao51, what happened to that FT in the end? That's a bizarre story.

[xiao51]