Job Discussion Forums

[Chancellor]

I noticed that most of the jobs (or interest in jobs) appear to be in North Africa - as in north of the Sahara Desert. Why is that?

[MichiganFan]

I assume it's because that's where the money is.

[rpayvin]

I would venture an informed guess that in most Sub-Saharan African countries, the english-teaching boom was come and gone. Most of the countries there were colonized by the Brits, and an english education was compulsory for many, and useful for the rest - in a lot of those countries, you can go to a remote village and people will be able to speak some english. Once these countries achieved independence, there were some english teaching jobs to be had in the 70's and 80's, a lot of them government sponsored or volunteer work or church-sponsored.

For the countries the Brits didn't get at, and the French colonized, they are still very centered around the French language, trading and working with other ex-French colonies, and with France itself. I have noticed a few opportunities in Rwanda recently, so this may be changing slowly, and we will see a few english-teaching jobs opening up in these countries. By and large though, english teachers are only needed for some of the elite, and for businessmen that plan to be working or have the opportunity to work in an international environment and need to get their english up to the levels required.

Finally, as another poster has said, the saharan countries have oil, and that attracts these kinds of jobs. Most of the other countries have very little, and are not interested.

Just my 2 cents, and I know that a lot of this is generalization - we're talking about 56 different countries here!

[scot47]

There were jobs in anglophone Africa in the years after Independence. I taught in both Zambia and Nigeria. As these countries produced their own graduates in large numbers, the jobs were Africanised and most of these countries no longer recruit teachers from the "Developed World". Some have programs with VSO or Peace Corps.

Jobs in Libya are often oil-related. There are sometimes jobs to be had in the Maghreb Countries (Tunisa, Algeria, Morocco).

However the largest number of jobs in EFLing is still in the Middle East.

[NigerianWhisper]

[wilco]

Most EFL jobs sub-Sahara seem to be taken by S Africans, Ghanaians, Nigerians, et al. Sudan is still available.

Dave

[khmerhit]

Sub-sahara? Fuhgeddaboutit!!!















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C A M B O D I A
try it and see dood

[cassava]

[Skyblue2]

It's a shame there's not more work there because sub-Saharan Africa sure has some intriguing spots.

[juniper]

Some jobs exist, but they are usually not advertised internationally. They are often taken by foreigners who were already living locally, for example, someone moving from a volunteer position into a higher paying position, or a foreigner who is married to a local, or someone who has lived in a "Western" country and returned.

In some non Anglophone countries, you can find the unfortunate attitude that anyone who speaks English can teach it. You therefore find instructors from neighboring Anglophone countries - some who are great teachers and some who have no idea what they're doing.

One option for finding work in Sub-Saharan Africa is to go for a year with a volunteer organization and network like mad in order to find something else before your contract is up.

You can also use your teaching skills in other ways - training of trainers for AIDS education, designing teaching materials, etc.