Monday 15 September 2014

Tougher mainland scrutiny of foreign teachers after child sex scandal fears

Teachers in China face checks and need five years’ experience after one foreign teacher had criminal record for child pornography and another was on the run from child-sex charges

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Guanyu said...

Tougher mainland scrutiny of foreign teachers after child sex scandal fears

Teachers in China face checks and need five years’ experience after one foreign teacher had criminal record for child pornography and another was on the run from child-sex charges

Laura Zhou in Beijing
15 September 2014

Beijing has issued new guidelines calling for stricter scrutiny of foreigners working in the capital – especially teachers from abroad – after child sex scandals in Beijing and Nanjing last year.

Mainland officials called for closer supervision in April last year after two foreigners – one with a criminal record for child pornography and the other on the run from child-sex charges – were found to have obtained jobs as English teachers.

The new guidelines, expected to come into force on October 31, will require all candidates to face suitability checks.
Some foreign teachers hardly know how to teach languages and have failed to become certified teachers, which has damaged the interests of students
Beijing Daily

People will also need to have more than five years of teaching experience before working in the city’s institutions and schools.

Foreign language workers would need to provide teaching qualifications when applying for “teaching related jobs” in all pre-school institutions, primary and middle schools, international schools and education training centres, the government-owned Beijing Daily reports.

Those people without teaching qualifications will need to provide other professional credentials, including TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) or CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults).

All foreigners working in non-teaching jobs would be required to have at least a bachelor’s degree, as well as more than two years of relevant work experiences, the guidelines said.

The change in policy – issued jointly by human resources department, foreign affairs office and municipality’s education department – comes at a time when there is rising demand for foreign language teachers in Beijing.

Native-speaking expatriates working as teachers are very popular with mainland students who are eager to improve their foreign-language skills.

The Beijing Daily said there had been problems in the past over the ability of some foreigners working as teachers because of the absence of official background checks on candidates.

The newspaper reported that “some foreign teachers hardly know how to teach languages and have failed to become certified teachers, which has damaged the interests of students”.

All professionals that did not have bachelor degrees, but had skills that are considered to be in demand, would be required to provide evidence of their technical qualifications, the guidelines said.

Each foreign worker’s contract period will also not be any longer than five years.

Beijing’s human resources department has also pledged to cooperate with the public security authority to punish businesses and individuals that found to have illegally employed foreign workers, the Beijing Daily reported.

More than 37,000 foreigners – most of them from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Australia – are working in long-term jobs in the Chinese capital, the Beijing News reported.

In April last year, the State Administration of Foreign Experts issued an “urgent notice” calling for the regulation of teachers’ “daily activities”.

It came after Beijing police detained Neil Robinson, 46, last April for overstaying his visa. It was found that the Briton had taught at the Beijing World Youth Academy, an international school, for almost four years without anyone being aware that he was wanted for questioning by British police in connection with child sex offences.

Guanyu said...

In a separate case, an unnamed American, 63, who had twice been convicted of child pornography offences in Illinois, was found to have worked as an English teacher in Nanjing – first at a language-training school and then at a university – between 2007 and early last year.