Sure, this is not an “end all to be all” list, but generally, it’s a good starting point and the schools on that list are among the better ones in Taiwan. That will vary too for some of them in particular with what someone’s religious beliefs are. For example, good luck teaching at GCA if you’re a history teacher and believe the earth is more than 6000 years old. I don’t even want to get started with Ivy Taichung and it’s surprising it’s even on the list. Once again, I think you’ve made the classic internet mistake by assuming that this is 100% only one certain way. Take a look at how I phrased this “Seems like a good way to separate the wheat from the chaf…” Also, in my years of being hear, and researching private schools, the list on here is mostly good schools. Part of what makes them good is that they are not (for the most part) owned and controled by Taiwanese. Some are public/private partnerships though (bilingual schools in Tainan and Hsinchu). I don’t know anything about the one in Tainan, but I know people who work at the Hsinchu school and they’re quite happy with it overall. A friend attended that school 20 years ago and said it really sucked but it has apparently gotten better over time.
May I know some of your “perfectly fine” private schools not on this list? The way your seems to describe one school I think I may know…which is very small and located in Beitou, but I could be mistaken. I’ve met the couple that runs that school and I think it’s really great, it’s part of a franchise called Acton. As I said, the CATES list of schools is not exhaustive, but provides a good starting point for which schools you want to work at. Acton is so small in fact, they don’t even hire other teachers, so it’s a bit irrelevant to have on this particular thread; it would be more relevant on the schools for parnets thread.
And yes, you’re right, wealthy parents will absorb non-sense, pay a lot and have no clue what happens in the classroom. The same thing happens with buxibans. I still seriously have no idea how some of those schools survive and what precisely is the mentality of the parents who send their kids to them.
You are correct on a lot of those schools. Didn’t mean to criticize you directly – I was more pointing out that it is a list but not necessarily an exhaustive list.
I don’t know of one in Beitou. The ones I’m thinking of are in Songshan (two of them) and Da’an (one). All have hired foreign teachers. There’s a surprisingly large number of others, but I don’t know enough about any of them to determine if they’re actually reputable or not.
yes, because a lot of them are very small and also very new, hard to really say if they are any good yet. as for the one in Beitou, it’s called Acton and it’s part of a franchise of schools that started in the US and has expanded worldwide. They take a very different approach than most schools and I really like their philosophy in general. https://www.actontaipei.org/https://www.actonacademy.org/ Worth checking out.
isn’t it a list of international schools for western foreigners? International schools are all private, but ain’t they usually separated from local private and “experimental” schools?
I use private schools here as a catch all phrase. and yes you’re right, all international schools are private (except for the bilingual schools in Tainan and Hsinchu which are a kind of hybrid, they get some public funding, are under the MOE, but only certain students are allowed to attend)… however, not all private schools are international schools. people who are looking to work at private schools (international and local private all included) would do well to work at most of the CATES schools.
In Taichung, I know firsthand (own experience and personal acquaintances) that you can get a job in several private k-12 schools with just a BA. Whether you want the job or not probably depends on how much you’re willing to put up with in a shoddy-to-middling teaching/learning environment, but the money’s not bad and the benefits are roughly comparable. Li-Ren, Tunghai Elementary and High School, Wagor, Kornell, and Ming Der all hire teachers without official licenses, although some of them will pay extra if you have one. These days, it’s a bigger plus to have your own APRC than actual credentials because it saves schools the trouble of doing your paperwork for you. Sad but true.
A lot of schools are saldy in the “willing to hire someone with an open work permit” camp, even in Taipei. This also goes for people who are married. I know of one particular individual who is married to a Taiwanese, only has a 2 year degree yet has worked in Taipei area private schools for years! Sometimes these people even end up in admin roles, despite the fact that they never, ever studied education, and only get the position because they manage to stay on for more than a couple years. Most qualified teachers in that situation don’t stay, so the cycle perpetuates itself.
probably not, but just contact them, they’ll respond, almost certainly. it’s just a married couple running the place, they might still be the only employees needed at the moment.
When is the best time to find a job at an international/private school here? Hiring season for most overseas International schools is in full force but I am seeing little to no advertisement from schools here.
Pinoco is right… usually around spring. Definitely after CNY, usually March, April and sometimes as late as May is the hiring season for local private schools, and public schools too.
There was an international schools fair two (three?) weeks ago in Taichung. That would have been the place to go around and ask questions of recruiters, but a lot of them were not actually doing interviews, just “drop by and chat” sessions wherein they did not take notes or care about who was asking what questions. It was kind of annoying, as admission was NT$900, but it was good to talk to some people and get a feel for the other schools.
Start checking websites now though, as many schools have already been posting openings for a month or two now.
I always go straight to the school’s website and see what positions are available. I’m sure there is a site, but I don’t know what it is. Sometimes things show up on Indeed and Monster, but not all positions or nearly anything close to all schools.
yes, and I should have posted about it here, but I just haven’t been using Forumosa much lately and the thought just never crossed my mind. It was 2 weeks ago.