That’s correct. Teaching at a school registered as a kindergarten is illegal even for people with open work rights. But teaching 2-6 year old children in a school registered as a buxiban is not, to the best of my knowledge, illegal.
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substitute teachers can be non licensed.
It’s all pretty straightforward to me.
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I know a guy in Tainan with an APRC and Open Work-Permit, right now. He teaches in a private kindergarten, masquerading as a buxiban. The school has a “safe room” for when the police or other government officials come. When the front desk pushes a hidden button a red light goes off in the classrooms and the foreign English teachers grab their stuff and head to the safe room and lock the door behind them. It doesn’t look like a door or an entrance to a safe room at all, it just looks like a part of the wall. It’s very clever.
One day the government officials waited outside for the two foreign English teachers to exit and they grabbed them up and took them for an interview. They both followed good advice and remained silent, made no statements, admitted nothing and denied nothing, signed no papers. They did present their official identification of APRC and JFRV ARC. In the end, the pigs let them go. Done.
But, it’s illegal for them to teach at that kindergarten. One has an APRC with Open Work Permit and the other has a JFRV. They are still there working illegally. Paid in cash, no record of employment, no taxes.
Now, they ride their scooters into the parking garage and use the private elevator to enter the school. They do not enter or leave the school through the front doors.
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TWO Tim Bu Dongs!
Personally it’s hard to understand the amount of hassle and risk people put up with for a part time job.
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The Ministry of Education doesn’t issue work permits for foreign teachers to teach at kindergarten, because local teachers are perfectly capable of teaching kindergarten-level ABC’s.
The situation about illegal kindergarten teaching is more complicated.
For instance AFAIK a few years ago the government said NO kindergarten kids (except maybe an intl school?) should be receiving instruction in English . So I don’t know the current situation but it could be that all kindergartens operating with English as the language of instruction are illegal. The whole thing is baloney.
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They said no read and writing, because that’s reserved for 1st grade. But they do teach ABC, and you don’t need a foreigner to teach that.
even if you are a national, you cannot legally teach or take care of kids in kindergarten without a credential.
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NO it’s because English is not classed as a required subject and kindergartens only allowed to focus on required subjects (or whatever they call them). if I remember correct it was set up to stop the kids getting to much pressure, but now they are looking into changing it.
A quick google got me this link but I remember more reputable establishments reporting on it at the time.
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It would be good if the authorities made a clear statement about the law here. This is causing a lot of confusion for both kindergarten/buxiban owners and foreign teachers.
I know buxiban owners who have received legal advice that registered buxibans can employ foreign teachers to teach children 2-6. I also know of a case this year in Taipei where a registered buxiban school was spot inspected and no problem found with foreigners with permanent residency or open work rights teaching at that school. The foreign teachers didn’t need to hide. The foreign teachers in Tainan were not on the books and that is against the rules (and a reason for them to hide).
Again, it would be good if the authorities could make a very clear statement about the law.
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they added statement how kindergarten can teach english in regulations.
If there is a need for foreign language teaching, part of the time should be integrated into the education and protection activity curriculum, and it should comply with the kindergarten education and protection activity curriculum syllabus; it should not be used all the time, or part of the time in a non-integration way.
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It’s quite straightforward, isn’t it, if perhaps illogical. Daytime kindergarten cannot be taught English. Buxiban Kindy level can be taught English but only with songs, interactivity etc. No textbooks, flash cards etc.
Is this not the case?
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i don’t think this restriction for buxiban exists, at least a national level.
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As far as I am aware, schools registered as buxibans can employ foreign teachers to teach English to children aged 2 - 6 during the day. But there is such conflicting info about this a clearer statement from the authorities is needed.
It would be better to remove all restrictions on teaching English and allow foreigners to teach legally in registered kindergartens (too). The authorities should focus their efforts on safety ensuring proper background checks etc many schools employ foreigners on visa free entry etc without even requiring police clearance.
I thought I was sure, but now I’m not.
It may be confusing for some foreigners, but it is doubtful that kindy/buxiban owners are confused. most probably, they just pretend they are confused, i guess.
No. This is the advice coming from their lawyer. It is also the genuine belief of more than one owner I know. And again, I am aware of one recent case where a registered buxiban was inspected, unannounced, and foreign teachers teaching english to 2-6 year olds were found to be working there without any problems. ROC citizens without any special license or credentials were also teaching english and other subjects to 2-6 year olds at this registered buxiban (they couldn’t do this legally at a registered kindergarten.) The legal situation is clear for registered kindergartens, but the situation with foreign teachers teaching kindergarten aged children in registered buxibans really does need explicit clarification.
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Or having a rooftop apartment, lol.
That logic doesn’t follow with me. I do however, now fully understand how mixing short ‘i’ with long ‘e’ gets so often conflated here now…
A correct foundation is everything in language learning. (Damn my poor execution of tones in Chinese lol)
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I’m not sure what part is confusing. that is the difference between kindergarten and buxiban.
they are different as elementary school and buxiban are different.