Language teachers slighted
Since the middle of last year, native languages have been added to the compulsory curriculum in elementary, middle and senior-high schools. The languages include those of indigenous tribes, Hakka, Eastern Min and languages of new immigrants, such as Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog and Burmese.
As a result, instructors, teacher training, salary and welfare conditions have become hot topics for native language education.
The Ministry of Education’s Foreign English Teacher Program offers foreign English-language teachers a monthly minimum wage of NT$60,000 and up to NT$88,000, thereby creating a wide gap in hourly pay between native-language teachers and foreign teachers. Instructors teaching native languages receive NT$420 per session in high schools, NT$378 in middle schools and NT$336 in elementary schools.
According to the regulations, native-language teachers can only teach a maximum of 20 sessions at the same school every week. Without classes during winter and summer break, a teacher’s average monthly wage might not even reach NT$20,000.
If native-language teachers wish to earn the minimum wage of NT$26,400, they would have to hold multiple teaching posts at different schools.
As native-language teachers must pass a language certification exam, they are highly trained professionals. As the government raised the hourly pay by only NT$20 in 2006, the less-than-satisfactory salary deterred people from the job and therefore hindered the promotion of native languages.
As foreign English teachers and native-language teachers are both involved in language teaching, the income disparity has the latter feeling somewhat slighted. Why do foreign English teachers receive much higher pay than those that teach, say, Vietnamese?
Tuesday last week was International Mother Language Day. Besides paying homage and gratitude to those working in native-language education, I would urge the government to raise salaries for native language teachers.
Chang Yu-ting
Taipei
Finding work later in life
I read Dino Wei’s (魏世昌) opinion piece in the Taipei Times titled “Middle-aged workers are valuable,” and I could not agree with him more (Feb. 23, page 8).
Several years ago, I was “involuntarily unemployed.” I posted my resume on online job banks, but did not receive many interview invitations. I went to an employment service station for the first time and asked about unemployment benefits and searching for a job.
The government has arranged some measures for people who are middle-aged and unemployed or re-employed which aim to increase employers’ willingness to hire middle-aged workers. The most common one being the “employment subsidies” that employers can claim.
However, as my former employer wanted to receive the one-year employment subsidy for hiring a “referral card” holder who had been unemployed for more than 30 days, he told me to wait for one month before starting work to meet the requirement.
A former employer of mine made his living mainly by receiving employment subsidies. To do that, all workers at his company would “resign” after one year of employment, and he would only pay them minimum wage.
It is easier for middle-aged and older jobseekers to find jobs at local convenience stores or supermarkets, where they are paid hourly or monthly wages. The average monthly salary of a shift-based job is lower than NT$30,000.
People like me who are “sandwiched” between the tasks of raising young children and tending to older parents must haggle over every penny for a long time until we can start collecting our monthly retirement pensions at the age of 65.
Meanwhile, small and medium-sized enterprises have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past few years. It has become even more difficult for middle-aged and older workers to find jobs.
As the pandemic has become less serious, a lot of businesses are preparing to make a comeback. I hope all employers treat middle-aged and older workers equally in terms of job opportunities and wages.
I also believe that such workers would cherish their jobs, as they do not come easily, and would definitely do their best at work. They are likely to stimulate young workers’ potential and therefore boost business. It would be a win-win situation for both sides.
Lin Shu-ling
Taipei
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