I have been offered a job at a school in Taichung by the usual agents. Or rather, I have been offered 2 jobs! They sent me 2 copies of contracts from the 2 different schools, Apparently the idea is half time each. The contracts they sent are just the standard ones. They said I would not be expected to teach in both schools on the same day.
Does accepting this means the 2 schools offer half of everything: bonus, vacation time, personal leave, etc.? Is there anyone in this position or has done it before? Which is your ARC attached to? I can imagine it has disadvantages so if there is anyone out there who has actual knowledge about this (as opposed to speculation) I’d be glad to hear from them.
I assume two offers are from public schools in the Taichung City government program.
If so, one should be designated as your main school and the other as your co-school. You should get two work permits (for each school), but salary, vacation, bonuses, etc. should be covered by the main school.
I used to draft such contracts at work, and the full salary would be only mentioned in the main school contract, while the co-school contract would state 0 NT$ in the salary column.
My situation is like this. I split my time between two different public schools.
As was mentioned, one of the schools will be your main employer - the one that is on your ARC and who pays your full salary and provides all the benefits, etc. - and the secondary school.
There are some disadvantages - they could tell you that you won’t have to be at both schools in the same day but then change your schedule to try and get you to be.
As part of your contract you’re required to do both winter and summer camps. If you have two schools you’re stuck doing two camps, while teachers with only one school just do the one camp and receive the same salary as you do.
Also, it makes it a lot more difficult to really feel like a part of the school and get to know your coworkers (which is already extremely difficult in public schools.) You’re basically just kind of seen as a part-time drifter in both places.
For me an advantage is that it provides some variety in the week instead of being at the same place for 40 hours a week. It’s also nice if you end up really disliking one of the schools or have issues with the management (this happened to me), atleast you’re only there a few days a week.