I also agree. All schools should have this updated and correct at all times. However, we all know how Taiwan is about following any kind of rules, laws or regulations. It just seems very suspicious that his school was targeted when I know of so many schools that do not do this. One enforcement for all or none!
His school is likely getting doxed by competitor schools or an inside job.
Exactly what I was thinking!
I’m a bit surprised they’d fine you for anything without a warning and an opportunity to rectify it. But, they’ve had a more noticeably serious attitude about this area. It could be that other schools are getting fined to if they’ve neglected to keep up with it. I don’t think the education bureaucrats give a crap who runs the school much less targeting anyone. They’re happy just to check their box that they made an inspection. Wrong place on wrong day kind of thing, most likely. Then again, some are more likely to know what’s in the works than others.
We had a parent complain to the MOE. One of my teachers supposedly injured a boy extracting him from a big wheel jeep.
Can language schools actually be owned outright by foreigners? I don’t mean being a partner in one.
Yes.
I might be wrong, but I think the teacher list requirement predates the criminal record check requirement.
There was a list that needed to submitted as part of licensing, but it wasn’t monitored as far as I know. There’s no way they would have fined anyone for a discrepancy. I believe they did collect revised lists along with the criminal checks.
Hi, just wanna come in and beat this topic to death a bit more.
I called the MOE (well, I actually called 1999 and they connected me to the MOE) to ask how to have legal English in kindergarten.
They said:
foreign teachers with open work permits AND an early childhood education certificate from the ROC
could teach children six and under, provided
there are distinct class periods that have a clear schedule that shows when each class period is, it cannot exceed 40 minutes,
Schools must have a roster that clearly lists who is teaching the class, and who is attending the class
So, anyone working in immersion and “bilingual” schools that doesn’t hold early childhood credentials from Taiwan is violating the law.
No work permits are issued to educators working with children under six.
So if you are not an APRC/marriage visa holder or refugee, there is absolutely no legal way to work in a kindergarten, full stop, nothing grey area about it.
The ed bureau told me to ask the labor bureau about international schools that are actually registered as international schools (very few are) and that person hemmed and hawed for ten minutes until the call cut out (there’s a ten min. limit on these calls)
So my conclusion is that all day English immersion is genuinely straight up illegal, unless I guess the Taiwanese teachers are providing the English-only environment.
Yet on FB groups you see many adverts for foreigners to teach in Kindergartens with the promise they will get an ARC.
Too bad the government is not paying rewards anymore for illegal employers and employees.
They do pay rewards when one reports foreigners working without proper work permit and the employer gets fined.
I am not sure a FB advert is evidence enough. Maybe need something more concrete.
I thought they stopped that. They would need to catch the person in a classroom in a kindy. I taught the 40 minute classes and the place I worked at was raided a few times. There were some Saffies working illegally on visitor visa they scampered onto the rooftop and got baked in the summer sun.
FAP and MOE were surprised to see me not try to run away lol. In the end it was good for the kindy reputation with the parents that the white dude was not an illegal lol
I’ve been teaching kids under 7 years old for a while. My school is registered as a buxiban. There was a time when you couldn’t teach kids under 7 but I have had no problems.
Really? Perhaps I should take my daughter around to some schools with a hidden camera asking to enroll her in kindergarten see the foreign teachers lol
It’s under six/pre elementary that’s the problem.
You’re registered as a buxiban but aren’t you also actually a buxiban? Like, not all day during the day school registered as a buxiban?
Do you have an APRC/open work rights? Do all the people you hired have open work rights?
My guess is they’re bigger sticklers about the labor side of things than the teacher holding the right qualifications side of things. Tons of people on marriage visas work in the public schools without teaching licenses (and probably 2/3s of the Taiwanese people I’ve been expected to coteach with in public schools over the years were not licensed teachers. At least two were current undergraduate students yet homeroom teachers), so there would be a lot more of a hassle to come after every person who doesn’t hold ROC early childhood certification (especially since, for example, my ESL certificate in the US is for three year olds up through grade 12, so one could make the case that someone like me is technically qualified to teach EC in the US, why does it need to be an ROC issued license?)
I’m just passing along what the MOE told me, which is work permits are not issued to foreigners to teach children under six and only people with early childhood education certificates in Taiwan can teach that age. If schools are passing inspections/applications without that and they’re not handing over red envelopes in the process, I guess the enforcers really don’t care (but that doesn’t make it legal, just something they’re not enforcing. Like parking your car in the middle of the road is not legal, but the police aren’t going to ticket you for it even if they are standing there as you get out of your car that’s parked in the middle of the road)
I believe you are correct. They have stopped enforcing the law that says teaching kids 3-6 yo is a violation. Subsequently, if you ask someone what is OK, you will get many different answers. I’m also licensed to teach kindergarten on the USA, not that it matters. I’ve had many different teachers and all of them were approved based on the necessary qualifications to become a buxiban teacher.
I thought they had too many teachers since student numbers are going down. Why do they need to hire undergraduates as homeroom teachers?
Because someone’s uncle’s childhood friend’s brother’s child needed a job.
This is actually a widespread problem across rural Taiwan. There are too many qualified Taiwanese teachers, but schools don’t always want to allocate their funds to teacher salaries. A “substitute” teacher is paid like NT$38k/month while a licensed teacher makes roughly twice that (once you factor in retirement, bonuses, etc.). So schools especially in rural areas often “can’t find a qualified teacher wiling to work here” (by literally not notifying anyone that they’re looking) and instead hire people who have absolutely no right to be in the classroom. “Oh, but they teach traditional drumming and the children love them!” Great, they also don’t speak any English at all and literally just have them copy answers off the ebook and into their workbooks so that’s all done when the department of Ed comes and checks on that. Meanwhile, this is going on while there are also tons of qualified teachers turning to private schools and cram schools because they can’t get jobs in public schools.
The MOE person cited the laws for me but I didn’t write them down. They’re quite clear/don’t leave room for interpretation. But obviously the enforcement isn’t happening