The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) will announce by the end of this month new regulations that will restrict the number of hours foreign teachers can teach English to no more than 32 a week.
The new policy will also require that those with more than one teaching position teach at least six hours at the other institutions. The total workload, however, still cannot exceed 32 hours.
The draft has already been approved by the council's review committee and official notices will soon be sent to English-teaching institutions nationwide.
Chou Ting-an (
"The main concern is quality of teaching," Chou said, "If there are no restrictions, the employers will increase the hours indefinitely and affect the overall quality of the teaching."
Chou said 32 hours is not an absolute standard and the minimum number of hours will remain at 14.
The regulations will see fines imposed on employers who break the rules. The exact amounts will be announced later this month.
To enforce the new policy, Chou said the council will entrust local inspectors in counties and cities with the task of conducting monthly checks on English schools within their districts. They will also randomly select foreign teachers from these schools and inquire about their class schedules.
Chou said the council was aware it was inevitable that some teachers will sometimes exceed the number when they substitute classes for other teachers, but said that these could be handled as special cases.
The policy change was likely benefit smaller English schools, which do not necessarily require teachers to commit to more than 14 hours.
English teachers, however, do not think the new policy will have a significant impact on their working conditions.
Joel Charron, who has been teaching for the past three years for the same school, said he did not know any foreign teacher who had been offered 32 teaching hours.
Teachers are in general offered around 20 hours, while 30 hours is probably the maximum number one could work, he said.
Charron said the council's concerns regarding teaching quality were legitimate, but pointed to the fact that some schools tend to change teachers too frequently.
"It would be tough on the kids if they have to readjust to new teachers and new management styles," he said. "They need consistency in schooling."
He expressed doubt that fines would deter schools from asking teachers to take additional hours.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
RSS