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For ESL Teachers in China Click Here |
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There are many sad stories from English teachers in China (and other Asian countries) of contracts dishonoured, money not paid, miserable living conditions, etc. This website section may help ESL teachers avoid unpleasant disappointments in China.
I have had some significant experience in China and with China, through my teaching and recruiting, and my import/export businesses, and I can tell you that China really can be a wonderful experience for you. Surely there are dishonest people who will brazenly take advantage of you, but equally there are many who will not. I have dealt with both kinds. Given the greedy and irresponsible climate that exists, it may seem daunting to find a good school and protect yourself from misfortune. But remember that no one can cheat you unless you let him. If you are careful to check your information, ask for references (a must) and go slowly, you should come out fine. The information here has come from my own personal experience and from the experiences of teachers and legitimate ESL website operators. These pages have been prepared for your benefit. Please take advantage of them. |
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To avoid difficulties with teaching positions in China, there are some things you want to understand about the environment and the system. Let's start at the beginning. (A) The Public System First, the universities, high schools, middle schools and primary schools are part of the educational system just as in Canada or any other Western country. And usually this sector is fine. There are a few that are not licensed to hire foreign professionals but who do so anyway - and that means trouble, so you must ask. (B) The Private Schools Then we have the private English training school sector. These are not 'schools' or 'universities' in any sense, but are simply private businesses established to profit from the great demand for English training. There are some very large chains of these, such as Wall Street, Oxford English, etc., who are quite legitimate, are licensed to hire foreign teachers, do all the paperwork properly, and typically hire good teachers and pay well. They generally have good reputations and care about the quality of instruction. LEC (Learning Education Centre) seems to be ok, and there are also some small private training centres that are good, but it isn't easy to know who they are. There are some large franchise chains that may be fine in the large cities, but are suspect in other places. There is one large chain with the word 'English' in their name whose franchises have quite a bad reputation in places - part good organisation and part scam. Some of the franchise holders have set up their own 'clone' schools and copied materials from the original to use for their private venture. These clones are not licensed to hire foreign teachers and often try to use teachers from the (licensed) franchise school to work free extra hours at the clone. There are hundreds, and possibly thousands, of these enterprises that are not part of any franchise or chain, but are single, locally-owned private businesses, often just a man and his girlfriend pretending to be a school. Usually they will lead parents to believe they can help the children get into a better university or pass a job interview with a large foreign company. They collect cash from the parents and find any backpacker who can speak English to teach the kids. Often, to keep the money flowing, they are motivated to lie about almost everything - including the childrens' grades. Virtually all of the trouble comes from this private English sector. These individual enterprises usually advertise themselves as schools or universities when they are neither. Often, the 'university' is two rented rooms in a cheap building somewhere. These private ventures are not, and almost always cannot be, licensed to hire foreign professionals, and are therefore illegal. The government sometimes shuts them down, but the money is so good that they restart somewhere else. They hire any native English speaker, qualifications inconsequential, and get them to come to China on a tourist visa, promising to arrange the proper documents later - which they cannot do. They try to pay teachers as little as possible, provide substandard housing, renege on commitments, etc. And since the teachers are working illegally in the country (i.e. no work permit, no residence permit, no foreign expert certificate, no income tax being paid), there isn't much power to negotiate. For all of these private businesses, the qualifications of teachers, the quality of education and the results obtained are of little or no concern. They want only the huge profits that arise from charging adults or parents high fees for the promise of a great future. They could do a good job, but they don't. They could try sincerely to impart English knowledge and ability to their students, but they often don't do that either. In fact, they don't much care what the teachers teach, or even whether they are capable of teaching. And each semester they ensure that all students get high marks so that the parents pay yet more money for the next semester. It's a simple and effective business model, and it works. The best is to not accept employment with the privately-owned English centres. It may not be easy to tell who is whom at the start, but that's why we ask questions. (C) The Recruiters Then there are the recruiters. Some, like my partner (who was the FAO at a major university) and I, are performing a necessary service for institutions in finding and evaluating foreign teachers. We also serve the teachers by placing them in good schools and helping to mediate difficulties and misunderstandings. We decided to pool our resources because we thought we could help clear a path through the maze. However, there are many who are so dishonest it would be comical if not for the disheartening results. They often disguise their status as recruiters, instead advertising themselves as real schools, often changing the name slightly so you can't locate it on a Google search, and they troll the internet looking for teachers. Many of them have no contracts with any school, so they don't actually have any jobs available. But they will send you a contract, sign it in their own name or the name of the (non-existent) school and get you to come to China (on a tourist visa). When you arrive, they will tell you the job (for which you hold an employment contract) has been 'unfortunately been filled', then try to sell you to some unlicensed school, negotiating the highest price they can get for you. Often, the legitimate schools won't deal with them, so they do much or most of their recruiting for the scam unlicensed private English training centres. This is the worst case, because now you are dealing with two scam outfits, and you will always lose. The unlicensed schools and the dishonest recruiters are truly partners in crime. They will collaborate in sending teachers a photo of a lovely apartment building in Vancouver or Hawaii, as an example of the lovely 'residence waiting for you in our beautiful city'. With some of these, everything they say and do is a lie. They promise to refund airfare at the end of the term, but then fire the teacher two weeks prior to the end. Ergo, no airfare. They take your passport and other documents for the purpose of arranging your working visa (which they cannot do), then refuse to return them to you as an incentive to stay (actually to prevent you from leaving). If you read all the posted job ads carefully, you will understand that the great majority are posted by recruiters pretending to be schools. They may know of job openings at legitimate schools but have no contract with those schools, so they try to find teachers and then sell them. From this information, the path is clear. Your greatest safety lies in ensuring that any job you pursue is with an institution licensed to hire foreign professionals. Almost always they have a website and an FAO with whom you can correspond. And you don't sign a contract or come to China until all your concerns about legitimacy have been satisfied. That will probably eliminate 80% or more of all problems that teachers experience. A large part of the other 20% may well be caused by the teacher. |