Thanks for the information. Like I’ve said, even if you can legally work in a kindergarten (which most foreigners can’t), working for a dodgy employer carries the risk of losing your job when the employer gets in trouble.
Summary of Apple article:
After the Treehouse English scandal in April, the super-posh Bokelai (Berkeley) Education Organization and its three branches in Longan, Guting and Ren’ai have been discovered to be kindergartens falsely registered as buxibans.
The mother of a prospective student complained when she discovered the kindergarten didn’t have a kindergarten license, comparing it to hanging a sheep’s head but selling dog meat.
A reporter posing as a parent went to the Guting branch and was told by a teacher that tuition averages $27,000 per month including miscellaneous fees.
The reporter also found out that each class has one foreign and one Taiwanese teacher, classes are taught in English, and the teachers’ duties include helping the kids change their clothes, blow-drying their hair, and pacifying them when they cry and scream that they want to go home.
Next, the reported staked out the other two branches where the parents drive expensive cars and couldn’t get in without an appointment.
The Chief Secretary of the Taipei Department of Education explained the requirements for a kindergarten are tighter than for a buxiban, to ensure the teachers are qualified and so on.
An investigation then discovered the smoking guns of illegal kindergartens: bedding and toothbrushes! (That’s what was missing in the Treehouse investigation iirc.) Plus large play equipment and a “game class” in the schedule. As these things were not government approved, the DOE decided they were providing educare in violation of the Early Childhood Education & Care Act, fined them 6k to 30k, and ordered them to cease all non-buxiban activities, and in accordance with the Supplementary Education Act, they were given a deadline for improvement.
Also, the Longan branch has a code violation from partitioning a basement room, which was referred to the Fire Department and the Jianguanchu (Construction & Management Office?).
Bokelai refused to comment.
Summary of comments on the article:
The size of the fine vs. the tuition means they have no fear. If an accident happens, parents will blame the government.
City Hall has it backwards, we should speak English every day, they’re violating our constitutional rights.
They’re just following orders, it’s the Ministry of Education that decided in 2011 not to allow English in kindergartens.
That’s actually irrelevant in this case, because the DOE apparently took no interest in the English classes. Although the education authorities are supposed to co-operate with other authorities for the protection of children, and learning foreign languages is officially detrimental to the health & welfare of kindergarten students in Taiwan, afaik there’s nothing that actually requires them to report illegal foreigners who are obviously there for the purpose of teaching English.
Summary of the DOE document:
The Bokelai (Berkeley), Bodian, and Yongyan buxibans have all been found to be operating illegal kindergartens or after-school care centers. Bedding and toothbrushes were seized, and so on. The Department publishes a list of perpetrators and their violations every month, and parents are encouraged to understand the differences between kindergartens, buxibans, and after-school care centers. Suspected violators will continue to be investigated.
This publishing of information about violations and administrative penalties is annoying because it’s always hidden in the bowels of a government website. They definitely were going to fine these guys, but there could be appeals, so I wouldn’t take it as confirmation.
