Job Discussion Forums

[Dragon Lover]

I received this email from China TESOL Teachers Register giving me a bad news for the ESL community. It is depressing to know that the Nanjing Conference was useless. I post the letter verbatim.

Dear Teacher,

Thank you very much for responding to the recent survey. We have attached the results, which have not been analyzed, but will provide a representative perspective of terms and conditions being experienced by teachers in China.

The Nanjing Conference did not produce any tangible results, and none of the expected topics were discussed by Government Officials. Other than a tightening of controls over the 72 accredited entities recruiting teachers for Chinese schools, changes to the employment terms and conditions for teachers were not discussed.

However, the applicable rules and regulations controlling the employment of foreign teachers are being compiled into an English language "tome", which will be available [sold] through SAFEA sometime later this year. One interesting change that was introduced by SAFEA Directors is that foreign teachers are no longer to be referred to as "Foreign Experts", rather as "teachers". It will be interesting to see how this adjustment manifests itself.

Should you have any inquiries with respect to terms and conditions or be seeking an alternative placement, please do not hesitate to contact CTTR; we are here to serve you in an honest, ethical and professional manner.

Best regards,

Mrs Qiu Feng
Registrar
China TESOL Teachers Register
Beijing PRC
Telephone: 010 8775 8197
Fax: 010 8775 8856
Email: [email protected]

The info below is an attachment to the email.

Best Salaries - Shanghai

Most Contract difficulties - Beijing

[Lowest Salaries & least satisfactory conditions] - Hebei, Yunnan, Hainan

[Least satisfactory Conditions, Major Cities] - Qingdao, Kunming

Most contract difficulties - Beijing, Heilongjiang

Most sought after cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao

Most sought Provinces - Hainan, Yunnan

Best Provincial FAO - Jiangsu

Least assistance provided by Provincial FAO - Hebei

Happiest teachers � Prov.[Contract satisfaction, salaries and conditions]-- Jiangsu


As to the 72 accredited entities recruiting teachers for Chinese schools, I'm asking the office who are these entities.

[struelle]

As unhelpful as this conference and response letter was, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. This 'survey' was a bunch of hogwash, since the outcome of the conference was already known in advance before the conference began. Going by experience, reading the posts on this board, and getting a feel for trends, you could already tell the Chinese leaders were tightening up the controls on FTs and wanting to do so further.

In short the leaders want to be more picky in selecting teachers (a good thing in itself) but not compensate by improving any of the terms and conditions in the contracts. They want to have better quality teachers while not upping the ante on their part! All I can say is, sorry, can't have it both ways.

Steve

[khmerhit]

Buncha commies. dont they know how the free hand works?

[Ludwig]

I was at a phonetics/phonology conference on the mainland up at the capital recently and there was some other things going on in the same building that I attended.

What you refer to was one of many radical changes that was discussed. The impression I took from the conference at least was that 'things are to change'. Indeed, one official speaker stated that "foreign" does not entail "expert" (at least not in Beijing). I refer you to:

http://www.beijingportal.com.cn/7838/2004/03/05/[email protected]

Indeed, there was an (officially entitled) "Announcement on The Qualification Ratification Measures of Organizations to Retain- Cultural and Educational Foreign Experts" issued in print form at the session, you can read about this at the official PRC government URL of:

http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/Jobs/default.htm

(Scroll down to the lower left.)