Not really. Fulbright managed to weasel their way into NTU and NTNU (and maybe other universities) with their “second year ETAs”. These are undergraduate degree holding individuals in charge of teaching with English as a Medium of instruction, happily taking 50k/month to teach at the university level, at Taiwan’s top universities. Their experience with education is that they spent one year right out of college teaching at a Taiwanese elementary school and some of them have a TESOL certificate. In other words, most buxiban bros are more qualified than them. Standards = pretty much nonexistent.
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English teachers unite!!!
(Im not one, but i kenna b?)
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Im not saying that those without degrees aren’t smart.
However, there is a much greater variety in intelligence among non university graduates. Some far smarter than graduates and others far less intelligent.
Looking at the statistics, I would have reasonable worries about the quality of a teaching certificate or degree from the Philippines. At 79 it ranks near the very bottom. The only country in Asia that ranks lower is Cambodia, dead last at 81.
When God was handing out brains I thought he said trains and I missed mine.
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That isn’t necessarily about the quality of teachers, there are a lot of factors. Educated parents are more likely to have books and help with homework, poor families will need the kids to help with work more. Hard to take a test when you’re hungry, hard to study when the school is flattened by a typhoon, and etc.
Having worked in the production of “certified” teachers in North America (and being qualified to do so, despite not being one) I am of the opinion that they laud their certificates so much because deep down inside they know it doesn’t mean as much as classroom experience.
I wasn’t offended 
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My wife studied for her teachers license in the Philippines. I was honestly shocked at how easy it was. Just absolutely useless training.
However, they have recently (as of this year) made it more difficult and raised the standards. But the same can’t be said for the current teachers. (Some are great and others are completely unprofessional posting their students on their TikToks etc…)
The same can be said for western teachers but the licensed western ones are far more professional in my opinion.
Oh, I agree. Having taken the education classes necessary for certification, I found that they consist mostly of either pointing out the obvious that anyone with common sense should already know, or academic theory involving the rubrics of overly complex lesson planning that no one is ever going to use in real life (I doubt many teachers sit down and graph the intersection of Level 4 with the Production stage). I suppose an Education degree is useful for training others to teach and teaching children at an elementary level, but really, having a degree in how to teach is not very helpful at a more advanced level. You actually have to know the subject you are teaching. Hence a degree in English, Math, Science, etc. and a bit of basic training over the summer is fine - you don’t need to waste an entire year getting a degree in Education. Like most jobs, you will learn how to do the job on the job.
Even classroom experience, without good mentorship, is not useful. I taught world languages through traditional grammar lessons for two years, thinking that was just how one teaches a language, though I was not getting very good outcomes. Then I had a mentor who told me about language as something you use to communicate. It completely changed my perspective on what I do as a teacher. By the end of year two of teaching (with a teaching license), I was sure I had a decent idea of what I was doing. Year three was when I realized I had no idea. A decade later, I am constantly paying for my own trainings because I realized that there are methods that work better than others. I need both training from others and experience in the classroom applying those things to actually be a good teacher. One doesn’t simply get the piece of paper that says “qualified!” and then learn through classroom time alone. You need to keep up your training, collaborate with others who are seeing good results, get feedback from people who actually know what they’re talking about, and keep chugging along. Most teachers anywhere do not do PD unless it is required to maintain their license.
Teacher training in the US can be anything from your entire undergrad career spent shadowing/observing every type of teacher in every type of education setting possible and writing reflections every week x 4 years to literally just passing the requisite tests, paying some money to someone, and going straight into the classroom “under the guidance of a mentor” (lol) for a semester. I know people (non-Taiwanese) in Taiwan who have teaching licenses from the US who have never even set foot in the US. A teaching license in the US can be high quality or it can be utter crap. In the US, good schools and school districts can tell the difference and will be careful to only hire teachers who have been through good programs. In Taiwan, the schools have no idea or don’t care.
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wow
Better bookstores and Starbucks.
Really? I always go to Makati. However leave the city and go to the provinces… everyone speaks Tagalog.
My wife’s nieces and nephews don’t even speak English…(they go to school in Manila) the curriculum In public schools is now all in Tagalog.
In many places now, Taiwans English is better
I kinda get what you mean. English proficiency in the Philippines is… I mean i suppose it’s alright, but loads of people do struggle with it too. I remember having to tutor public school kids and they’d do everything in their power to convince me to teach them Maths instead of English haha
I think that’s pretty cool though that they’re teaching things in Tagalog. When I went to local school* I only had Tagalog classes 3x a week? It was a struggle to pass that class every year I’m ashamed to say 
*Should note that I went to a local Chinese school, so I reckon it must have been different at other schools 
You don’t need to fly all the way to Manila to hang out in cafes and read. There is only one on place in the world you can dive the 100 Islands or hike the Chocolate Hills or 1,000 other natural wonders in that archipelago.
Yes for sure, but you make like there’s nada beuno thing to do in Manila.
Totally agree.
I know native “teachers” teaching without having a clue how to teach. They teach just because they are native, that is ridiculous.
I think non-native teachers should be allowed to teach in Taiwan if they have MA in teaching English, teacher license and at least a few years of experience in public classroom environment.
The problem as always is filtering. The U.S., U.K., Canada, Oz, and even little NZ boast some of the finest colleges and universities in the world, and a degree from an accredited institution actually means something. It’s not a perfect filtering system because there are many dodgy third-rate institutions trying to pass themselves off as real schools in each of those countries. And sure, if someone from France or Singapore presents all of those credentials, that’s one thing. But someone from Pogo Pogo University in Bongo Bongo is another matter entirely. Lots of countries issue degrees that aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Does a degree from a Taiwanese university equal the same weight as a degree from your own country?