They say there are 3 to 4 more teaching positions than applicants. As shown below, I have copied my posting from page 3 of the thread, "New Subscriber: why is this website so negative???" My reasoning being perhaps the subject of the international teacher crisis deserves a thread of its own for discussion. From "The International Educator" article cited below the heads of schools' focus seems to be on recruiting new teachers; no mention of how to retain the existing teacher force. If heads of schools are indeed monitoring the ISR forums and have now appointed their task force it might be a good opportunity to centralize this for all to see and let your ideas and needs flow.
1. What do present int'l teachers need in order to stay and new teachers need in order to be enticed?
2. Why did you leave or why are you going to leave international teaching?
There are already many good answers to these questions at the above-titled thread, and all over these forums. There are also two excellent postings by Scribe and Ichiro on page 3 of the above-named thread regarding the TIE articles which perhaps they might consider copying here as well..
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Headline on April 2008 "The International Educator" at Tieonline.com
"AAIE & AISH To Tackle Recruitment Crisis.
Task Force Being Formed to Address Candidate Shortages."
This article covers a Sunday meeting in New York of the heads of schools to discuss reasons for crisis and solutions. Remarks had to do with job fairs: fighting for candidates, not being able to have 3 or 4 interviews with teachers the heads are interested in, not having time to go over their resumes and info, leaving without having filled their positions, etc.
The reasons given, particularly for the acute shortage of American teachers, but all teachers as well, were given as lack of advertising and lack of knowledge concerning intl teaching. Only one woman brought up salary saying, in my words, not hers, teachers want to have the salary they deserve sooner rather than after completion of 20 years of teaching.
When discussing what needs to be done about this shortage, it was felt primarily that informative advertising needs to be done as most teachers in their home countries know nothing about international teaching. It was even suggested that they go on Oprah to talk about it. They felt if they could just get 1% of the 3.5 million American teachers to recruit it would give them what they need. No mention of improving salaries, benefits, retirement, etc. in the article at all. Hmmmm.
There is also a reply to the prior editorials about ISR and some other articles about recruiting in this edition. You all need to read it yourselves.[/b]
Heads Say - Int'l Teacher Recruitment Crisis - What Say You?
Reasons Observed and Anecdotal
While what I am about to write is based more on perception, I think it holds some water nonetheless; this is my 8th year as an international teacher, and 11th as a teacher in general.
1) I think a major reason for a shortage is that candidates are picky; I've been to 5 fairs in the past years, and at each one it seems the majority of people are going with one or two schools in mind, and if that school doesn't work out, then they go home. Heads of school would thus perceive a shortage simply because they aren't working at that destination: I doubt the head of a school in Rome would see a shortage, whereas a head in Colombia might.
2) International schools continue to open, using the moniker of being international, when they're just profit schools. My first job was at Seoul Foreign School in 2000; at that time, there were 3 other international schools besides SFS, and not all of them were "international." All the students were Korean, and the schools were profit-motivated. Now, at my count, there are something like 9-11 schools in Korea claiming to be international. These schools go to the fairs, and might siphon off a few unwitting young, inexperienced candidates. Or, they simply flood the market with jobs that don't get filled, thus creating the statistic that there are more jobs than teachers.
3) From everything I read from home (USA) there is a teacher shortage there, and that would logically lead to a shortage of people overseas. With the exception of one person, everyone I graduated from college with has left education; most did so in two year's time.
Solution: I think schools need to form an ultra-selective fair. This doesn't mean candidate entry, but school entry. They should create a criteria of what it means to be an international school (student body makeup, philosophy, accreditation, etc) and only allow those schools in the fair. Thus, instead of having 10 schools from Korea, there would only be 1 or 2. This would benefit candidates as well, and root out some of the poorer schools which seem to be the source of so much angst on this website.
1) I think a major reason for a shortage is that candidates are picky; I've been to 5 fairs in the past years, and at each one it seems the majority of people are going with one or two schools in mind, and if that school doesn't work out, then they go home. Heads of school would thus perceive a shortage simply because they aren't working at that destination: I doubt the head of a school in Rome would see a shortage, whereas a head in Colombia might.
2) International schools continue to open, using the moniker of being international, when they're just profit schools. My first job was at Seoul Foreign School in 2000; at that time, there were 3 other international schools besides SFS, and not all of them were "international." All the students were Korean, and the schools were profit-motivated. Now, at my count, there are something like 9-11 schools in Korea claiming to be international. These schools go to the fairs, and might siphon off a few unwitting young, inexperienced candidates. Or, they simply flood the market with jobs that don't get filled, thus creating the statistic that there are more jobs than teachers.
3) From everything I read from home (USA) there is a teacher shortage there, and that would logically lead to a shortage of people overseas. With the exception of one person, everyone I graduated from college with has left education; most did so in two year's time.
Solution: I think schools need to form an ultra-selective fair. This doesn't mean candidate entry, but school entry. They should create a criteria of what it means to be an international school (student body makeup, philosophy, accreditation, etc) and only allow those schools in the fair. Thus, instead of having 10 schools from Korea, there would only be 1 or 2. This would benefit candidates as well, and root out some of the poorer schools which seem to be the source of so much angst on this website.
My perception is the number of 'bad' schools to 'good' is rising. Security in your position, top notch admin, professional development opportunities, stable curriculums, honest reporting procedures cannot be assured in many of the schools who like to call themselves international.
Take the example of ENS, it gets many negative feedbacks but claims it has CIS backing and IB staus. It advertises on what were once reputable sites, attends fairs.
Why would you pay out an enormous amount of money to attend a fair, when there is no protection against schools like ENS.
I like maxsaidno idea of a ultra selective fair, a fair where applicants could trust that schools had been vetted.
Another reason is wages. I have been working overseas for ten years now and in real terms my wages have dropped. It used to be financially rewarding for me to work overseas, now I would earn less than home wages.
I would work overseas again if the above things were assured.
Take the example of ENS, it gets many negative feedbacks but claims it has CIS backing and IB staus. It advertises on what were once reputable sites, attends fairs.
Why would you pay out an enormous amount of money to attend a fair, when there is no protection against schools like ENS.
I like maxsaidno idea of a ultra selective fair, a fair where applicants could trust that schools had been vetted.
Another reason is wages. I have been working overseas for ten years now and in real terms my wages have dropped. It used to be financially rewarding for me to work overseas, now I would earn less than home wages.
I would work overseas again if the above things were assured.
It can't be that complicated
There have been many posts on why certain schools don't attract or retain teachers. They pay crap, they treat teachers terribly, the don't honor contracts, the classroom atmosphere is bad and their administration is poor.
Right now I'm in the Chicagoland area. Go down into many parts of Chicago and there is a teacher shortage. There's a shortage because people don't want to teach there. The conditions are horrendous. God bless those that do, but most don't.
Go to the magnet schools or the suburban schools. They pay well. Conditions are great. They don't have a teacher shortage.
As far as teachers being picky- I guess I fall into that group to some extent. I want my kids to go to a good school. I want to be valued and paid well. I'll work my ass off for a good admin and support a school that values my efforts. So when I look at a job fair like UNI and see a few 'top tier' schools- my criteria, those are the ones I'm shooting for.
I'm not going to take any job paying a fraction of what I can get in the US, with marginal benefits, no retirement, no security and a questionable track record. I'm not going to relocate my family on the hollow promises of any school.
If schools want good candidates, pay them well with good benefits. They'll get teachers. Twenty years ago ASIR in Riyadh paid probably some of the best benefits and salary around- maybe they still do. It was a very desirable school. You could save more money than most places, travel and lived well (or as well as you could in a compound). They got teachers to come to what some would consider a 'difficult' environment because they paid well.
Twenty years ago SE Asia had ISB, ISKL, SAS & JIS. There were a few smaller schools in Singapore; Overseas and Tanglin. That was it. Now SE Asian schools include a turgid pool of for-profit 'school's' that pollute job fairs with jobs paying nothing, cycling through staff who sign 2 year contracts only to have them break contract when they find out what the school's are really like.
If I'm paying several grand to attend a job fair, possibly to get treated poorly, I'm going to be picky. If schools think teachers are going to fawn over exotic locations and be willing to forgo 20-30% local pay in the US to relocate their families to questionable situations they're dreaming. If schools can't pay, they can at least present a professional, collaborative and supportive school. Hire good people and support them.
Eventually the job fair will have to start throwing out the crap schools. They'll have to start setting some kind of criteria- or yes, people will go elsewhere.
Right now I'm in the Chicagoland area. Go down into many parts of Chicago and there is a teacher shortage. There's a shortage because people don't want to teach there. The conditions are horrendous. God bless those that do, but most don't.
Go to the magnet schools or the suburban schools. They pay well. Conditions are great. They don't have a teacher shortage.
As far as teachers being picky- I guess I fall into that group to some extent. I want my kids to go to a good school. I want to be valued and paid well. I'll work my ass off for a good admin and support a school that values my efforts. So when I look at a job fair like UNI and see a few 'top tier' schools- my criteria, those are the ones I'm shooting for.
I'm not going to take any job paying a fraction of what I can get in the US, with marginal benefits, no retirement, no security and a questionable track record. I'm not going to relocate my family on the hollow promises of any school.
If schools want good candidates, pay them well with good benefits. They'll get teachers. Twenty years ago ASIR in Riyadh paid probably some of the best benefits and salary around- maybe they still do. It was a very desirable school. You could save more money than most places, travel and lived well (or as well as you could in a compound). They got teachers to come to what some would consider a 'difficult' environment because they paid well.
Twenty years ago SE Asia had ISB, ISKL, SAS & JIS. There were a few smaller schools in Singapore; Overseas and Tanglin. That was it. Now SE Asian schools include a turgid pool of for-profit 'school's' that pollute job fairs with jobs paying nothing, cycling through staff who sign 2 year contracts only to have them break contract when they find out what the school's are really like.
If I'm paying several grand to attend a job fair, possibly to get treated poorly, I'm going to be picky. If schools think teachers are going to fawn over exotic locations and be willing to forgo 20-30% local pay in the US to relocate their families to questionable situations they're dreaming. If schools can't pay, they can at least present a professional, collaborative and supportive school. Hire good people and support them.
Eventually the job fair will have to start throwing out the crap schools. They'll have to start setting some kind of criteria- or yes, people will go elsewhere.
I'm not sure there is a "crisis" in the job market right now. I realize that, for some schools, they are having difficulty filling positions, but for other schools it's like trying to get in to Harvard. It seems like the schools who are having difficulty finding people are the schools who are 1) huge, 2) have a high staff turnover, and 3) are not in what I would call "dream locales".
Say what you want about the UAE/Kuwait/etc, but it is not among my top ten places I have to visit before I die. The Alps, the Far East - yes, but the UAE and Kuwait - no.
People from my school have had difficulty finding jobs out of the job fairs. Now I am somewhat sure they were being picky, but they all reported that the schools were very selective (this was at ISS New York and Thailand). Honestly I'm not sure what to think about the whole teacher shortage idea. It's there, but it's not there.
Say what you want about the UAE/Kuwait/etc, but it is not among my top ten places I have to visit before I die. The Alps, the Far East - yes, but the UAE and Kuwait - no.
People from my school have had difficulty finding jobs out of the job fairs. Now I am somewhat sure they were being picky, but they all reported that the schools were very selective (this was at ISS New York and Thailand). Honestly I'm not sure what to think about the whole teacher shortage idea. It's there, but it's not there.
Teacher shortage or good position shortage?
The complaints of a 'worker shortage' is not unique to international teaching. Computer programmers and engineers have been hearing media reports of 'high-tech worker shortages' for years. And yet, rather than employ the ready supply of North American programmers at a livable wage, companies instead choose to export the work to lower paid countries. What industry is actually lamenting is the shortage of workers that they can exploit at a lower wage than their education should dictate. If parents would let the schools replace us with Indian teachers, they would. There is no teacher shortage, they will appear out of the woodwork as soon as wages become worth the difficulty of living in an undeveloped country. I've never heard the UN complain that they simply can't find employees willing to go to Egypt for USD 70,000 a year. Simply put, wages have not risen to match the inflation caused by the drop in the American dollar. A twenty percent depreciation in one year in any profession would cause people to leave in droves. Short-sighted profit-driven schools will see the exchange rate benefit of tuition vs salaries as a potential windfall...and then ask "Where did all the teachers go?" Gee, if they could just entice a few more 1st year teachers over to work for peanuts all of their problems would be solved. The international teaching circuit is looking more and more like ESL in Taiwan all the time. Except for a few long standing schools, the professionalism is over. It's 'a warm body in the classroom' until wages match inflation.
I'll finish my contract and then go home.
I'll finish my contract and then go home.
unfortunately so
What Agricola notes is sadly true - the corporatization of our schools has become increasingly apparent. Money is the bottom line, even in the non-profit schools, depending upon their boards. While the benefits of diversifying the teaching staffs at various schools by hiring from many different English speaking countries are certainly unarguable; (our teachers from Austalia, New Zealand, and South Africa add depth and charm to the school) the fact remains that one of their attractions to the administration is their willingness to work for lower wages than Americans and Canadians are used to; this is undeniable. Notice the addition of hiring fairs in locales which serve these populations and their
growing popularity.
The articles in TIE talk about American teachers being unaware of overseas opportunities, that may be so, but when we recently left public school positions to return overseas, most of our stateside colleagues had the same reaction, "why?" Why would be leave better paying jobs (in terms of salary) and home and family for lesser pay. Honestly, had we not originally (years ago) left for other reasons and found out the pleasures of working in an international environment, with both staff and students, we would not have considered it (we actually liked the various public schools we worked in as well as the students). As inflation soars and our salaries fail to compensate, we still wonder frequently why we did it.
One of the TIE articles quotes Cairo school head Monica Greeley, who stated that "what had worked at her school especially in terms of retaining teachers was restructuring the pay scale so that it didn’t take 20 years for teachers to make the money they deserved." That's a commendable idea. Now how about the teachers who HAVE been in the business 20 years or more? If they switch schools, are they put on the same pay step as teachers 20 years their junior with far less education and experience? How many schools honor what those teachers bring to the classroom?
Sadly, what Agricola concludes appears to be true: "What [the overseas education] industry is actually lamenting is the shortage of workers that they can exploit at a lower wage than their education should dictate." Maybe all of those who have allowed this to happen to ourselves should follow his example and go home, or at least to one of the schools where the heads DO get it, and pay their staff as if they are the most valuable resource they have, which they are.
growing popularity.
The articles in TIE talk about American teachers being unaware of overseas opportunities, that may be so, but when we recently left public school positions to return overseas, most of our stateside colleagues had the same reaction, "why?" Why would be leave better paying jobs (in terms of salary) and home and family for lesser pay. Honestly, had we not originally (years ago) left for other reasons and found out the pleasures of working in an international environment, with both staff and students, we would not have considered it (we actually liked the various public schools we worked in as well as the students). As inflation soars and our salaries fail to compensate, we still wonder frequently why we did it.
One of the TIE articles quotes Cairo school head Monica Greeley, who stated that "what had worked at her school especially in terms of retaining teachers was restructuring the pay scale so that it didn’t take 20 years for teachers to make the money they deserved." That's a commendable idea. Now how about the teachers who HAVE been in the business 20 years or more? If they switch schools, are they put on the same pay step as teachers 20 years their junior with far less education and experience? How many schools honor what those teachers bring to the classroom?
Sadly, what Agricola concludes appears to be true: "What [the overseas education] industry is actually lamenting is the shortage of workers that they can exploit at a lower wage than their education should dictate." Maybe all of those who have allowed this to happen to ourselves should follow his example and go home, or at least to one of the schools where the heads DO get it, and pay their staff as if they are the most valuable resource they have, which they are.
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Traveller1
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:18 pm
With some notable exceptions like the American International School of Lagos or Bombay, American Schools don't seem to pay as well as their British or even International counterparts.
I don't think your point about international schools attracting Australian, New Zealand and South African teachers because they will accept lower salaries holds much water. The US dollar has become so devalued that it's almost reached parity with the Aussie dollar, so where's the benefit?
I don't think your point about international schools attracting Australian, New Zealand and South African teachers because they will accept lower salaries holds much water. The US dollar has become so devalued that it's almost reached parity with the Aussie dollar, so where's the benefit?