International schools in Taiwan

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

I currently work at an international school in Southern Taiwan. I won’t mention the school name so as to try and keep a bit anonymity.

I’m not particularly happy at the school. There are many problems but the ones that get to the most is poor internet, poor communication, various administrative issues etc. However, the real kicker is the one that is effecting my life work balance. I have a long commute and I also work 8-5. Combine that with having to work saturdays for various reasons once a month. We also work 20-22 week semesters which is exhausting. The pay is decent but I’m not happy with the work conditions. The students are great - no complaints there.

I love living in Taiwan and I would be happy to stay here, just probably not at this school. What are some other decent international schools in Taiwan. I know of Taipei American School and Taipei European School. Are there any others.

For those who have worked at Taipei American School or Taipei European School, are these hard to get a job at, do they have to follow the Ministry of Education and do they have more reasonable holidays? What is the pay like?

I have plenty of teaching experience in my home country, a Masters degree and IB experience in Taiwan. Plus a Search Associates profile.

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I heard Taoyuan American school is really good. It just happens to be in Taoyuan but heard it’s better than TAS ans TES.

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Do you have a state-issued teaching certification? That may determine your ability to be placed in an international school

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Yeah I do. I have full registration with the state department of education in my country plus a Masters of Teaching. I was a fully qualified teacher back home.

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Cool. Taoyuan isn’t too bad. It’s pretty close to Taipei and no doubt has much cheaper rent. I’ll look into the school.

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With those credentials then you would probably find it easier to get into one of the 2nd tier international schools in Taipei. I believe the top tier (TAS and TES) hire mostly from the international job fairs and don’t recruit locally, so you’d probably have to attend the fair in BKK to be considered.

Schools that are full international schools (ie schools that only accept students with foreign passports - TAS, TES, Morrison Academy, etc) are not under the MOE and have more reasonable holidays. Schools that run international programs as part of their regular school (e.g. Kang Chiao, I-Shou, Victoria Academy, etc.) are under the auspices of the MOE and follow the Taiwanese school calendar.

It is also quite close to the end of the school year so many schools will have completed their hiring, so it may be hard to find something for the next school year.

Regarding Taoyuan American School, I’ve know a few teachers who have come and gone over the years. Can’t really say if it’s a good or bad school, but I will note that it doesn’t seem to have any accreditation from international bodies (WASC, IB, etc.) to validate its program.

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Just curious, did your school recently change its name so it did not reflect the name of a terrorist organization? Otherwise, there is really only one other international school down south, Kaohsiung American School, and I usually hear good things about that place. Not really sure if Taoyuan American is any good. I’ve heard mixed stuff about it. Very small class sizes and you have to negotiate your salary, but if you can get a decent salary, it could probably be a relatively easy job given how few students you’d have.

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I have experience of TES and friends at TAS.

The latter - based on information from friends who work there - is that they now utilize psychological profiling as a recruiting tool. I’m not quite sure what that says about the type of people they hire, but I do think it suggests that they are very specific about who they are looking to employ. Maybe they’re trying to weed out any undesirables asap.

I also know from a friend who no longer works at TAS that they employ Ivy League and Oxbridge types with no teaching license. Obviously that’s not the only teaching demographic there, but it provides an insight into their thinking. I presume it is due to the prestige factor associated with such an education plus many of the parents aspire to sending their children to such universities. Whilst I say all this, bear in mind it’s second hand information. On the other hand, I do know quite a bit from my time at TES…

Most teachers are hired from overseas job fairs; however, I know of several teachers who were employed at TES while already working in Taiwan. These ‘local hires’ are fully qualified, experienced teachers who have worked at 2nd tier international schools, cram schools or EAL staff at the school. Some were traveling spouses who worked in other jobs - see above - until a position became available.

I know they were hired locally because they used to have a different contract from teachers brought in from overseas. At one time, TES British Section could employ two fully qualified teachers from England, but one was employed via the overseas route and one the local route as they already lived in Taiwan. Even though they did the same job, the local hire received no teacher package like housing and flight subsidies while the overseas hire did. It was a contentious issue which has now been rectified by providing the package to both. My point is that TES definitely employs qualified, experienced teachers who are already in Taiwan.

Importantly, don’t forget that TES is three schools in one. The German section only recruits from Germany, but the British and French sections both hire locally. The French section is a damn good setup and very, very impressive. It’s a bilingual program where students have two teachers to learn subjects in both French and English. Actually, I would say the French school is the most relaxed in terms of working environment.

If you really want to move, you could always sign up as a supply teacher for these schools. I’m not sure if you can do both, but I know that supply teachers can earn a decent salary at TES and probably more at TAS. More importantly, it gets your foot in the door until the next recruiting season.

I hope this helps.

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Good to hear that about TES, that they provide the package for local and overseas hires. Doesn’t seem to be the case at the other school mentioned. and yes, word on the street is that other school hires I.L./Oxbridge types for the reasons you mentioned, although they don’t completely comprise the staff, it tends to happen almost exclusively in the high school and for the reasons that you mentioned.

And yes, you are correct about the “supply” or substitute teacher route. I believe one could do both, but would have to give priority to one over the other and have to turn down assignments at the secondary one over the primary one if you wanted to get more consistent work at at least one.

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Is it true that salary at International schools in Taiwan exceeds NTD 100,000 per month ?
What is the workload, general atmosphere ?
Would be grateful for any info from teachers.
Thanks a lot.

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That will depend on what kind of “International” school you are looking for. KangChaio is probably a guaranteed 100k/ mo if you are white and hold a teaching license from your English-speaking country, but you have to ask yourself if you want to work at a school like Kangchaio. Money isn’t everything…

That being said, there are tons of “international” schools that pay less than 80k/mo and expect you to stay late for meetings and other things while also cooking the books about “overtime”, which they do not give you, though that’ll be a fun talk when the labor bureau gets a call.

I had one “international school” try to offer my 60k/month with no housing stipend or flight allowance (IN TAIPEI!!) and then insist that they didn’t “have money like the public schools, so this is the best offer”. Yeah, you charge 300k/semester/kid but you can only pay your licensed, experienced in real schools teachers less than a cram school pays a FOB?

My current “international school” teaching experience is total crap and I have considered quitting in order to work at the cram school that many of my students go to many times. We work at least 10 hour days most days, 38 contact hours/week with the students. The admin are maniacs who insist that the revolving door of foreigners is a “cultural issue”, failing to realize that it’s a school culture issue, not a Taiwan culture issue. This is most fake/tier three international schools in Taiwan. Hiring tip: If they don’t ask you questions about your resume but seem to really like you, don’t work there. My current school was trying to gaslight me for weeks after assigning me a stupid art club to go teach that I had majored in art, when I had, in fact, majored in linguistics and no one in the school had majored in art. This is because they saw a white person who also spoke Chinese and decided to hire them on the spot. REALLY not the criteria you want to be hired under.

In brighter news, I know someone who is an assistant at TAS (Taipei American School) and she said that a local hire would make at least 200k/month. But you need real experience and licensure and have demonstrated your desire to improve your teaching credentials over the years to even be considered for such a position. You don’t just jump in at TAS after you’ve had a few years at HESS.

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Thanks a lot for your valuable opinion!

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Would it be possible to know which school you work at. I am currently weighing a few offers but am scared to get stuck in a situation like the one you described.

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What do you mean by improve your teaching credentials exactly? Like get additional subject specific qualifications?

15

Ming Chuan university fits well in your category but have not heard any open position yet

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I’m not going to share the name of the school as it’s very small and my identity would be promptly known.

When interviewing at schools, ask questions you don’t think you should need to ask and get it in writing — when prep time is, when your break(s) are, if you are expected to supervise clubs, if you are expected to run summer camp, if you are expected to help with after school care, who is going to help you when, if you’ve got recess duty and what other adults will be with you. Get an exact breakdown of your duties from the moment you walk toward the school building in the morning to the moment you go home in the evening. These are things that were not in my contract but were considered part of my “teaching duties”, so I didn’t really have a lot of grounds to say anything.

Also, know how many contact hours you will have with the students. Pushing normal is 24 contact hours/week. Average is more like 18-22 (public schools are even less)

Ask for clarification of what happens in the summer. Few schools expect teachers to work summer camp for more than a few days without additional pay, but the school I’m at has summer camp for literally the entire summer and foreign teachers are expected to run it with no guidance or prep time. Know also that asking you to work on Saturdays without having a 補假 means they owe you 230% of your usual salary. A work day is 8 hours and a work week is 40 hours. There must be two rest days for every seven day period. Run away from contracts that say things like “prep work is an expected part of your job”. Sure it is, but if they don’t provide prep time during the 40 hours you’re there in the week, you are entitled to overtime pay for that time (by law), so don’t sign the contract unless you know there will be prep time. Also, anything about an expectation that you will attend meetings or training on evenings or weekends. Be firm that they must put how much overtime you will be paid in those cases.

Also, ask if you can meet with some of the other foreign staff and talk with them about how they do their job so you can “understand the duties better”. If they’re not willing to give you contact info for other teachers or let you talk to them after your interview (I mean, have a conversation with them without admin breathing down your neck), it’s probably a good sign there’s something they don’t want you to know.

Final red flag (in my view): they’re constantly posting “looking for teachers” ads on facebook and elsewhere in the middle of the year. Over half of our foreign staff quit in the same week, only to be replaced by people who all quit within a week. All of the replacements said that they thought it was concerning that there was an opening mid-year, but they hoped it was a maternity leave or family emergency sort of reason and not the work environment. If you’re bold, ask how the position came to be available or what sorts of struggles the person you’re replacing faced. Sneak around social media and scope out the other foreigners that work there (without being a creep about it)

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Working in a different kind of school (experimental vs traditional), getting a masters, doing your own PD by taking classes in areas relevant or not to your current subject area, or get other credentials like Montessori, Waldorf, etc. to show you’re expanding your understanding of Ed. I’m not sure I should really be the authority on this though. The school I teach at now insisted that this was my fist year teaching elementary students and that I’m still finding my way…yeah I’ve taught elementary every year of my teaching career, the problem is the zero prep time, not a lack of experience. So they clearly didn’t even look at my resume. Now that I think of it, they didn’t check my teaching license either.

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Thanks for the info, contract I am looking at now says 21 teaching hours but nothing about contact with students.

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21 teaching hours is solidly in the middle of what you’d be expected to do in most schools, but make sure you confirm that contact hours do not exceed that. If they want you to supervise clubs or help with after school care, you can easily reach 35 contact hours in a week and have basically zero time for prep. Make sure it’s very clear in your contract that you will have time wherein you are not responsible for looking after kids outside of those teaching hours

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My contract said nothing about teaching PE but they had me teaching 8 hours of PE per week. 2 weeks later after my protests I was fired because they needed a PE teacher even though I was hired to be an English teacher. If the market wasn’t what it is right now I might be willing to sue but jobs are plentiful.

Sure I could litigate this but the time and stress spent doing this just isn’t worth it.

This is an expensive private school in Taipei. Really a circus.

Be prepared. None of these places have much if any regard for you.

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