Higher pay and quality concerns have prevented Ho Chi Minh City schools
from accepting Filipino English teachers under a pilot program by the municipal
education department.
City schools have registered to
receive only 29 Filipino English teachers from the department, which plans to
recruit 100 such teachers for the K-12 education system in this academic year.
The teacher recruitment is part
of a pilot program to help improve school students’ command of English,
according to the city Department of Education and Training.
Each student will chip in
VND120,000 (US$5.8) a month to cover the $2,000 monthly salary for the
teachers, it said.
An elementary school principal in
District 3, an area whose schools have not registered for any Filipino teachers
so far, said that it is hard for them to ask their students to pay an extra VND50,000
a month to hire Filipinos because they have had to contribute a monthly sum of
VND70,000 to study with British teachers for many years.
A District 6 education board
leader said that no schools there have signed up for Filipino teachers for the
same reason.
“Our students are paying
VND50,000-70,000 a month to be taught by native speakers from Canada and the
U.S.,” the official said, “so district schools feel hesitant employing
Filipinos at a higher tuition fee even when they use English simply as a second
language.”
Uncertainty
Nguyen Thanh Hai, chief of the
Tan Binh District education board, said that his schools are willing to take
Filipino English teachers as long as they are paid by money from the state
budget.
“Otherwise, we need time to think
about it before asking for payment from the parents,” Hai said.
The official revealed that Tan
Binh District schools will be watching how Filipinos teach English at other
schools and then act accordingly.
Two schools in District 1 will
use two Filipino English teachers in the near future, according to Dinh Thien
Can, the district education board chief.
“We will see how they perform at
these schools and then plan for the next school year,” Can said.
Willing to fire teachers
immediately
Le Hong Son, the education
department director, said the Filipino English teachers who have been chosen
thus far are expected to start next month.
“We will fire them right away if
they fail to meet our requirements or show any bad manners during their work at
the schools,” Son affirmed.
They will teach English to
students, engage in discussions on expertise with local English teachers, and
take part in extra-curricular activities during the contracted time, he said.
Son recently told local media
that his department opted for Filipino English teachers because they demanded a
lower salary, while their Australian peers asked for $5,000, and British for
$10,000.
In the meantime, many expat
English teachers have told Tuoi Tre that teaching English can generate
US$800-2,500 a month, depending on the number of working hours.
They revealed that a $2,500
monthly income would require long hours of hard work from them.
TUOI TRE
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