Taipei October 16th, 2003

Ministry of Education Prohibits Foreign Teachers Working in Kindergardens

In a pair of published orders, the Ministry of Education has announced that as of October 1st, 2003 foreign teachers are no longer allowed to teach in kindergardens, rescinding their May, 31st, 2002 directive that had allowed the practice.  Kindergarden teachers whose contracts were signed before October 1st will be allowed to finish the term of their contracts.  Announcements were mailed to schools nationwide. 

 From the onset of the May 31^st order, groups of legislators and scholars had strongly criticized of the presence of foreign teachers and second language classes in kindergardens, arguing that kindergarden-aged students were at risk of being not sufficiently socialized in their own language and culture.  The Education Ministry cites specifically the issues of Early Childhood Development, Teacher Qualifications, and the growing cultural biases and competition between the variety of “Western” kindergardens teaching English.  The announcement further mentions an August 27^th, 2003 decision by the Executive Yuan as having forced their hand.  Some commentators speculate that the issue is being used for political gain in the run up to the presidential elections.

The new edict not only informs schools about the  restriction on foreign teachers, but also contains a specific reminder to  kindergardens that they must comply with all relevant regulations, a statement that was interpreted by some as meaning schools using non-native designations even just in the names of their kindergardens, such as “bi-lingual”, “American”, etc. could censured.   

Also, while not in the directive, the Ministry of Education will remain responsible for certifying teachers to teach at the bushiban level. Announced plans to move the authority over to the Ministry of Labor’s White Collar Employee section have been pushed back to an unspecified completion date.   

Taipei April 29, 2003

Foreigners Allowed to Teach in Public Schools

The national legislative body has made it possible for public schools across the country to hire foreigners.  Schools in some counties had already had this right as part of a special experimental program.  It is now on its way to being permitted everywhere. 

The move is seen as part of the regulatory changes that will prepare the country to hire foreign English teachers in every local schools.   Within the legislature the plan is not without controversy.  While proponents of the plan assert that the benefits of having native speakers in public schools will enable less privileged children to compete, a vocal opposing faction has emerged that challenges the plan, arguing that it will be too costly to fund and manage. 

Taipei March 14, 2003

MOE to MOL?

Teachers can expect the Ministry of Labor to be fully in charge of ARCs by July or August of this year.  Additional staff are currently being hired and trained to handle the new department.  The most basic implications of the change will be that bushiban teachers will become classified as fully white collar employees.  This should eliminate an employer's ability to block ARC transfers that many teachers currently experience.

Taipei - January 20th, 2003

Director of MOE's Junior High & Elementary Education Department reassures Local Teachers

In a statement today, Junior High Schools & Elementary Education Department director Wu Tsai Shwen said that as the country's plan to have nationwide English instruction in the third grade by 2005 continues to create teaching vacancies, priority will be given to hiring Taiwanese teachers.  With the current number of local teachers at only around 2000, part of the governments impetus for announcing it's recent plan to bring foreign teachers to Taiwan was to meet the expected shortfall.  Projections indicated that implementation of the program will create a demand for an additional 2000 teachers by 2005.  Wu said today that he firmly believes that the national Normal University system's English Science departments, other local universities with English and Education majors, and local Bachelor degree holders who have attended Elementary English Education classes will be able to account for as many as "1,859" of the estimated 2,000 needed teachers.  He stated that the system should require no more than 600 native-speaking teachers to make the program successful.  

These beliefs were echoed today by the Vice-minister of Education.

Wu additionally emphasized that those native-speaking English teachers hired be operating in advisory capacities to local teachers and in curriculum development.  He further stated that native teachers would be more likely to be placed in rural assignments.

Taipei - January 19th, 2003

Hiring Plan Slowdown

The plan to bring 1000 native speakers of English to teach in the public schools by Fall 2004 has been scaled back to 400 to 600 the Education Ministry announced Saturday as reported in Sunday's Chinese language China Times newspaper, http://news.chinatimes.com.  The statement came after a meeting of the Ministry’s English Teaching Consultation Committee.

Another announcement from the meeting was the decision to keep the new native-speaking teachers out of front line teaching positions. For the time being they will be brought in only as co-teachers, or to offer training for existing local teachers.

The report stated that this could possibly result in higher wages, as the teachers who would be qualified to train would obviously need to be more experienced teachers.

In the report Shi-Da University English Department professor Shu Yu Whay criticized the Japanese and Korean models as failures that should not be emulated in Taiwan. She cited labor problems with the recruits including frequent cultural miscommunications leading to tension in public schools, and occurrences of teachers violating the terms of their contract by working in local bushibans. Additionally, the professor cited data showing that during  the last decade that the Japanese program of having native speakers in public schools has been in place, Japanese TOEFL scores have not shown improvement, and have consistently tracked lower than Taiwanese TOEFL scores over the same period.

The report goes on to report  that NTU Foreign Languages Department Director Liao Shen Haw cited potential socialization difficulties, asserting that while university students are able to critically examine any criticism and questioning of local culture that native-speaking teachers can bring, the effect of such debates on elementary level and junior high school aged children could not be gauged. Further, he said that local teachers may find their professional development hindered in the presence of foreign experts. Overall, he counseled the Ministry to slow the pace of the programs implementation.

In a related story in the Chinese language newspaper the United Daily News, www.udn.com.tw, a local personnel company has announced that after Chinese New Year they will bring 20 Philippine teachers to Taiwan. While the MOE has made no comment on the plan, the company asserted that all of the teachers would not only be university graduates, but also holders of teaching licenses. While they are expected to work in bushibans and kindergartens upon their arrival, the company emphasized that should they be given the opportunity, these teachers would be willing to take the public school positions for 30,000-40,000 per month.

Taipei - January 16th, 2003

18 Arrive to Teach in Public Schools

The United Daily News, www.udn.com.tw, is reporting that 18 volunteers from the United States have arrived to take up the first positions as native-speaking teachers in in public schools. The cost of their airfare was donated by a Taiwanese beverage manufacturer, Kingcar. They will begin teaching in Chaiyi and Nantou counties after Chinese New Year. It is unclear whether their tenure will be for just the Spring semester, or for a full calendar year. Their room, board and transportation will be covered by their respective school districts. They will receive no salaries. The article indicates that the candidates are affiliated with the Institute in Basic Life Principles, www.iblp.org and http://tw.iblp.org/training.html. While not all have university degrees, they have been trained in ESL by the their organization and have had extensive ESL classroom experience in various countries before arriving in Taiwan. It states that this particular group of candidates was chosen to fill these first positions because they closely meet the conditions outlined in Education Minister's proposal as having basic Chinese ability and teaching experience. 

They will spend next week in their school's counties for a local orientation session, return to Taipei for Chinese New Year, and then begin teaching in their respective counties after the holiday is finished. 

Taipei - January 6th, 2003

Local Elementary Schools and Junior High Schools to Hire Foreign English Teachers.  

The announcement was made by the Ministry of Education yesterday, and came on the heels of the MOE having delivered formal notification of the plan to the local government representative offices of English speaking countries in Taiwan.

In this initial phase, the program seeks to bring 1000 teachers to Taiwan over the next 22 months.  The MOE has stated that recruitment will begin in March.  The first teachers are expected to arrive to teach for Summer of 2003. By Fall of 2003 the MOE expects a few hundred teachers to have arrived under the auspices of the plan.  By Fall of 2004 the program is expected to have placed 1000.  The ultimate goal of the plan is to have at least one foreign native-speaking teacher in every elementary school and junior high school.  Under the plan, priority for receiving teachers will go to rural and less economically developed regions of the country.  

Under the terms announced yesterday, qualified candidates will be under 45, university graduates whose major was in a linguistics-related field and who have what has been termed "basic" Mandarin skill.  A preference for classroom teaching experience was stated.  Also, teachers will be given a two week orientation class before beginning to teach.  

The Legislative Yuan has expressed broad support for the program, with a revision of the Employment Services Act, expected in short order to formalize the new program.  

The most controversial component of the new program has been the salaries the plan has budgeted: NT60,000~90,000 per month.  The reaction has been far from muted.  Taiwanese English teachers are complaining bitterly that their own wages range from NT$30,000~40,000/month.  Local teachers who are seeking work are complaining.  Additionally, the adopted plan has provisions could influence the seniority between the local teachers and the newly-hired foreign teachers.  The plan calls for foreign teachers to be classified into 4 levels, two of which could be interpreted as being more senior than long time local English teachers.  Further complaints are being raised in terms of the overall expenditure, with even parents maintaining that the money could be better spent as direct investment into the education system.  

Taipei - August 28th, 2002

Teachers are allowed to work for more than one school.  Amended in session on January 21st and promulgated in the second week of May, the Employment Service Act now allows teachers to work for two, or more,  schools.  

Article 53 

Any employed foreign person who needs to change his employer or to be recruited to work for 2 or more than 2 employers within the permitted duration must request the prospective new employer to apply for permission to change.  

Which, according to the MOE, means as long as your first school agrees. 

Article 53 continues in the English translation to say “The prospective new employer shall prepare and provide documents of termination of previous contract.”  Then, since you are adding a second job, that provision of your original work permit - that you work for just one school -is now not true, and needs to be updated.  If the first school agrees, responsibility for filing and securing the two-job status with the MOE falls to the new second employer.  

....
Another change
Foreigners are allowed to teach kindergarten.  By executive order of the Minister of Education, dated May 31^st.  Again, as long as the ARC school has documented that the teacher will be working there.  (Original)  

translation:
Regarding the question of if a registered bushiban can sub-contract teachers to a kindergarten, the explanation is as follows: 

1. If a registered bushiban agrees to subcontract a foreign teacher to a private kindergarten, both entities must be aware that the curriculum developed must address issues relevant to children first learning to operate in society and include enjoyable educational games and activities appropriate for young learners.  The language instruction should complement the overall curriculum & social goals of Kindergarten.

2. As a result of this order, registered bushibans will be able to designate their teachers as able to teach at private kindergartens.  The relevant local authorities shall amend or create working papers that will indicate this added right according to their own designs.  If the teacher has these necessary endorsements, then the teacher's documented sub-contracted work at a private kindergarten will not violate Article 57, Paragraph 3 of the Employment Service Act  (An employer shall not assign foreign persons to engage in work other than that denoted in the permit.) nor Article 73, Paragraph 1 of the Employment Service Act (Allowing employee to work for another employer that is not stated on the application authorization.), and such work at a private kindergarten shall be permitted.

Jong-Tsun Huang
Minister of Education
 
To be both publicly posted and held on file at the Ministry of Education
CC: Labor Committee of Executive Yuan
       All County Departments of Education  

 
Up to now, kindergarten has been off the list of approved jobs for foreign workers.  It remained off the list, even as amended.  It seems the government's announced intention to make English the official second language of Taiwan, pressure from school owners who were being fined for having native-speakers in their kindergartens, and demand from parents forced the hand of the Education Ministry.  While Article 46 of the Employment Service Act, which outlines the places where foreigners may work, still does not list kindergartens as an approved venue, it does allow work as: 

(Paragraph 4.) Full-time foreign language teachers with termed contract in a registered bushiban compliant with the Complimentary Education Law

This new directive is the “Complimentary Education Law”.

Again, up to now, foreign teachers have been allowed to work at licensed bushibans but not allowed to teach at kindergartens.  You can now teach at a kindergarten if your ARC school and the kindergarten get together and approve it.  However,  the act deals only with teaching kindergarten ages in actual kindergartens, that is schools licensed as kindergartens - yo je yuan.  Yet  there are two other kinds of places kindergarten-aged children are found: Pre-schools -, twou er swou - and After School Study Centers - , twou eu jong shin.  So far, these two do not allow foreign teachers and are not included in the order.  

A bushiban - , dwan shin bushiban, is a school designed to teach specific academic subjects as a supplement to in-school teaching.  There are math bushibans, computer bushibans, English bushibans, and some which apply to have a mix of areas.  The element to understand: bushibans are licensed by the Ministry of Education and are aimed at enhancing specific academic subjects.  Kindergartens are also aimed at specific academic objectives, early child hood development & socialization, and as such also fall under the Ministry of Education.  

The last two, pre-schools and after-school study centers  are considered by the government as a way to enable parents with infants get back to work and to let working parents have a place for children to go after school.  Although market forces have changed them somewhat, their function is considered less educational than societal.  As such, they were not put under the Ministry of Education, but the Ministry of the Interior's Children's Bureau.  The colloquial term for the after school study centers is Anchinban.  This term is sometimes generically applied to the after school classes of bushibans as well.  

The “in session” requirements of pre-schools and after-school study centers are not nearly as strict.  The educational level of the employees, who are called "care teachers", not teachers, is reduced as well.  It is not uncommon for young mothers or local grandparents to become licensed to set up pre-schools  in their homes.  Some bushibans will have licenses for these in addition to their bushiban license.

The new directive from the ministry of education allows teachers to go from their bushiban to teach at actual kindergartens.  Currently there are 3,300 licensed kindergartens in Taiwan.  At the same time, there are nearly 3,000 pre-schools and 1000 after-school study centers.  If you and your first school agree to do this, how could you tell if it's a kindergarten?  It would be on their license.