Any teachers working at Taipei European school?

Hi guys,

Wonder if there are any teachers working at Taipei European School?

Yes, there are. Hope that helps. :upside_down_face:

10 Likes

Great!
Would you be able to share your opinion about the working conditions, work -life balance, after school activities and other benefits at your school?
Are conditions comparable to those of elementary/junior high school?

I think what @Andrew meant was that in fact, yes, there are teachers working there. I’m sure we can all agree on that! I don’t think any frequent here, but maybe someone will surprise me. I often see some young, friendly and talkative-looking types get on the train at Zhishan after school, if you’re desperate.

2 Likes

There are also elephants in the zoo.

2 Likes

Probably about half of them.

1 Like

Those I’ve talked to say the work life balance is better there than at comparable international schools, but the pay is lower.

1 Like

Thanks a lot for the info !

Do you know roughly what is the pay there ?

I don’t. I’m sure it varies based on education level and years of experience, though, and there may also be different scales for on-island vs. off-island hires. As a semi-educated guess I’d be surprised if they make much more than $50k (USD/yr), but I could be wrong.

There are a couple of different websites you can subscribe to that collect that kind of data on international schools around the world.

salary depends also on your position in the school, teachers make more that class assistants, assistant head make more than teachers etc.
there are also other benefits like housing allowance and of course discounted tuition for kids, which is worth a lot too.

1 Like

The OP specifically asked about teachers, so I was operating under that assumption with the salary question.

Housing allowance is generally included when people discuss salary numbers (money is money), but it is an area that could differ between on-island and off-island hires.

I’ve gotten the impression that TAS and TES have NDAs regarding salary, as everyone seems to talk in whispers about what they actually are.

I would be surprised if TES teachers only make 50k USD/yr. though. A lot of tier 2 schools pay close to that if they’re getting 2 month CNY bonuses and housing in that number, and TES is one of only two genuinely international schools in Taiwan.

1 Like

a nearby landlady told me the housing allowance alone is about 20k USD

I think we can presume that the housing allowance likely scales (to some degree) with family size.

I suppose you are not including AST and KAS as “genuine international schools”? Or Morrison Academy

KAS maybe. I don’t know enough about AST to form an opinion; I only know it’s at the top of a mountain and only accessible by car. Morrison, if we’re talking about international schools paying wages comparable to or higher than one’s home country, absolutely not — they pay something like 50k NTD/month. It might be a decent school filled with students from actual abroad (which is a step up from most other international schools in TW, including TAS), but it’s a school that expects its teachers to spread the word of Jesus Christ with all their heart, not make a salary that allows one to live comfortably.

Someone, somewhere on this site, posted about tier 1 vs. 2 vs. 3 international schools. It was an opinion piece but i agree with what was said. I’ll add my own details: tier 1 schools are like TAS, TES and maybe KAS or AST— well resourced, non-profit schools with highly qualified teachers that pay salaries that reflect that. Tier 2 = Kangchaio, Taoyuan American School, Morrison, etc., which are good schools but are for-profit or have an agenda (like religion). Tier 3 = for-profit schools run by people who have no background in education that charge tier 1 prices for tuition but pay their teachers cram school wages and aren’t very well resourced. The vast majority of “international” schools in TW fall into the tier 3 category. The person who had initially posted this said Kangchaio was a tier 3 school but eventually improved into a tier 2 school.

I was surprised to read that TAS/TES are non-profit, given the fees they charge. What does “non-profit” mean here - something like “we distribute the profit to the people running it so we don’t make a profit”…?

1 Like

I think non-profit, when it comes to schools, usually means they don’t have shareholders to answer to. A board of trustees and other people demanding high salaries, certainly, but no shareholders. Compare that to Kangchaio, which only exists because of the publishing company 康軒. They don’t charge as much for tuition, but they’re in it for the $$$

1 Like

Most expensive private universities in the US are non-profit, as well. You generally don’t want educational institutions to be profit-driven.

2 Likes