Uneducated teachers

[carang]

It was a decision that we made before we moved here. My son started his education in the UK and we wanted him to continue on the same path while here, so that when we return he can slot back in to his class with relative ease.

Also, the move here was quite a transition for him and we did not want to make it more difficult for him but putting him into a government school where he would struggle to understand what was being taught and also may have struggled in the playground during break time etc. I was not comfortable being in a situation where I could not help him with his homework etc.

Also, the fact that your husband is local and can quite easily help your children, converse easily with teachers etc puts you an an advantage with government schools. This was not an option for us at the time.

this i can understand completely... for children who are of kindergarten age, though, i think that it could be an option, if more people knew it was out there.

for children who are already being educated overseas, to move here, then move home again.... an international school would be a very wise choice, especially if it follows the curriculum of the "home" country.

 

[thanka2]

Ahem...and I'd better add a disclaimer here for Cara and other's like her (i.e. me) who have their children enrolled in local schools.

DISCLAIMER: I am not saying that local school teachers are all rubbish teachers. They are not. There are a lot of good local teachers and a lot of good local schools, but my feeling is the overall public school system in HK is broken and there are a lot of uncaring teachers out there that have that "iron rice bowl" mentality (especially the older teachers). So, if you're going to place your child in the local system, the most important is to seek out a good school with good teachers and observe them and make sure you're okay with their teaching philosophy etc. My son attends a local kindergarten and we are pleased with it and his teachers but then again, this local kindergarten is run much the same as an international kindergarten so that is unique.

 

[AmyH]

Oh, and to clarify, I brought out what the school system (in general) in Hong Kong is like to highlight that this is the same system that is training up the majority of Hong Kong's teachers. So, compared to even the "qualified" teachers in the public system, sometimes some of the "unqualified" ones who teach with heart and passion are at least an improvement over the system's status quo.

Of course, the people who have their children enrolled in international or private schools pay a very high sum (as you probably very well know) for the education of their children, thus this opportunity is not available to everyone. And for that high sum the international and private schools have the "buying power" to attract the best of the best which is wonderful for the students and the teachers. Unfortunately, this is not the day-to-day reality of the majority of education in HK.

It is very sad for any student to have a teacher that does not care about the very important role that they play in a child's development. It can cause great damage.

 

[thanka2]

It is very sad for any student to have a teacher that does not care about the very important role that they play in a child's development. It can cause great damage.

Yes, it is sad but there is a lot of additional things to understand about the stress and nature of the work local teachers deal with. Sometimes the apathy is truly understandable especially when they're handed classes of 40+ students with a large percentage SEN (Special Educational Needs) with inadequate training to deal. In HK SEN students are totally integrated into the classroom which often means they're just thrown in there and they and the teachers are supposed to just get along as usual--without any real extra support. Also, the EDB is constantly changing it's expectations and in general making the workload of teachers (especially the "busy work") heavier. In my opinion, it's a problem with the system, not just the teachers.

 

[bryant.english]

Please do not even try to tell me that Hong Kong is exempt from all of the above..... I do believe that you may have borrowed my rose tinted glasses if you think this!

Just to add that if Hong Kong chose to make it compulsory for all teachers to be university educated the cost of your children's education would probably triple...

 

[AmyH]

Just to add that if Hong Kong chose to make it compulsory for all teachers to be university educated the cost of your children's education would probably triple...

Doubtful, considering all of the teachers in my son's school are already qualified but we would cross that bridge if we came to it.

 

[bryant.english]

I see a lot of people here who struggle to get a job when they come here (their husband/wife has good job and they are bored) and they cannot speak cantonese. The first suggestion is always "do you speak English? why not get a job teaching?" This does not mean they would be good teachers and they may not have passion for it either. The fact that people feel that because the can speak the language they should somehow be qualified to teach it is beyond my comprehension.

I wonder if you're confused. Western people who are teaching in government schools should be qualified. Normally they will have at least a undergraduate degree and a TEFL qualification and be working towards or hold a PGDE. Private tutorial centres are another matter of course!

I hire NETs from time to time and agree that there are a lot of chancers trying to get English teaching work in HK. The following is an Email I received just today, this is not an excerpt, this is the whole email, I've only taken out the phone number:
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English teacher
I happen to be an experience english teacher for kindergarten, primary, and secondary students located in tai po, would you like to have a phone interview? Thank you, hope to hear from you soon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, I guess he/she is not a NET!! I specifically asked for a NET!

 

[AmyH]

I wonder if you're confused. Western people who are teaching in government schools should be qualified. Normally they will have at least a undergraduate degree and a TEFL qualification and be working towards or hold a PGDE. Private tutorial centres are another matter of course!

No confusion here at all. The OP raised the issue that she was teaching at a school where the people she was working with were not qualified to be in the classroom and the discussion arose from that.

If you are referring to my comment about the route many take when they come to a foreign country and decide to "teach" because they can speak english, then I still believe this is wrong. Private tutorial or not, people should not pretend to be what they are not as it makes a mockery of others who have spent years obtaining the correct qualifications to do the job.
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[bryant.english]

No confusion here at all. The OP raised the issue that she was teaching at a school where the people she was working with were not qualified to be in the classroom and the discussion arose from that.

If you are referring to my comment about the route many take when they come to a foreign country and decide to "teach" because they can speak english, then I still believe this is wrong. Private tutorial or not, people should not pretend to be what they are not as it makes a mockery of others who have spent years obtaining the correct qualifications to do the job.
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But the problem is to attract professional teachers you need to pay professional salaries. The NET scheme does this, if you have a PGDE and several years of experience, you will be paid quite well. In a tutorial centre, an unqualified teacher can earn less than 200HKD per hour and the centre might charge parents 400HKD per month for four one hour lessons. Most qualified teachers would not get out of bed for this little money. People will not come here to teach if their standard of living is less than what it would be in their home country, unless they are planning on doing it short term to get overseas experience. Many HKers cannot afford to pay huge sums of money for tuition and adopt an any English is better than none approach - they're probably right to do this, I'd rather an ordinary education than none at all. I'm sorry, it's all well and good to make sweeping statements but what about the consequences? There is a kindergarten near me which is already priced out of having a NET because of the qualification requirement. They do have a qualified local English teacher and frankly, given that she can barely string a sentence together, I'd rather have my kids taught spoken English by a plumber!

 

[bryant.english]

unfortunately in hong kong, the only criteria to teach english is to be western looking and have english as your mother tongue. it also seems to be the demand from the typical parents - which you can see when you realize that people who look not western (i.e. asian) but who have english as their mother tongue are not accepted as english teachers by many schools and especially parents

Where do you get off saying this, it's simply not true!