Legality teaching under six

So I have seen this brought up a few times in the past and I’ve been trying to search around on the forums for an update to this.

Is it legal for a foreigner to teach 5 year olds English? In a buxiban that is. I have heard that teaching in a kindergarten is illegal but my school is a registered buxiban with only one K class (they are 5). I saw on the forums a while ago (can’t find it now) that this is technically legal now but I’m just curious…

Also what would happen if caught. (deportation?) I have a work permit for the school and ARC. Again 99% of the classes are over 6 years old with this one exception.

paging @yyy

Poor old yyy. How many times does the alien have to try to explain this?

Bottom line is the OP is almost certainly illegal if s/he’s teaching 5 year old children (at this point in time). If caught deportation would probably be the result depending upon which part of the educational establishment the OP got caught.

If the class is registered as a part of buxiban (no registered kindergarten exists) but the class is a de facto kinder, the school is violating the rules and OP is ok. If the class is actually a Buxiban class, no one is violating the rules. If there exists a separately registered kinder, OP would be deported if caught.

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Unfortunately I have heard both:

and

now and in the past. Which is why I was looking to get a little clarification. :confused:

You will find relevant laws here.

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I think the stock answer to these questions should be to ask the MOE.

I’ve usually had luck asking carefully phrased questions to the WDA, though the answers come in Chinese

It’s illegal for anyone to teach a non-Chinese language (English, Japanese, French…) to children under the age of 6.
I’ve seen a couple articles recently with talk of changing these laws, but… it’s just talk so far.

Yeahhh I understand it’s illegal but I’m wondering if he potential punishment in my situation being deportation or… the buxiban getting in trouble… or both.

The devil is whispering to me that you should apply for naturalization based on the rationale that you possess skills that Taiwan needs, i.e. under-6 language pedagogy skills. And then you’d be legal!

FIFY

At buxiban, it is legal.

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Well, I’ll be blowed. It makes sense, which makes it even more surprising.

@IulusGrun why don’t you confront your buxiban owner/manager/director and tell him or her your very valid concerns about teaching a kindy class and what it could mean to both the school and your future if you’re caught.

Yeahh and I have and they always tell me it’ll be fine.

Again, if my future wouldn’t be affected too much by this then I’m not going to worry about it. Just want to make sure I’ll be okay if god forbid anything should happen.

is the class a de facto kindergarten or a 45min English class?

It seems dicey at best. Personally I’d refuse and if they threatened your job over it you could either call their bluff or go right to the labor board if they followed through. They’d be the ones in trouble, not you.

A 45 min english class in an otherwise 95% non-kindergarten age buxiban.

Source?

If those 5yo kids just come for the 45min class to the buxiban, I mean they don’t stay at the school for full day and no nap time, lunch time, teeth brushing time etc., it sounds indeed a buxiban class for young kids, and iirc, it is legal.