Jiangxi is in the process of implementing a new retirement policy for foreign English teachers, which is a little puzzling as to the intended improvement of Jiangxi’s education system, though this change has already happened in other provinces. It is being suggested that foreign teachers should retire at the age of 60, although, a Chinese interlocutor might interject here to suggest that a male Chinese teacher also has to retire at 60, so fair’s fair
(55 for women). However, is the situation as simple as that?
Jiangxi’s educational institutions struggle to recruit a mixed bunch of foreign English teachers every year ranging from the barely qualified with a minimum of experience to the over qualified and over-the-hill, leaving many universities complaining of a lack of quality foreign teachers or simply a lack of foreign teachers.
Though, questionable recruitment agencies are making a killing based on this dilemma. One really needs to look into why a ‘foreigner’ would consider teaching in Jiangxi. There is a trend for recent graduates, barely out of university themselves, to work as teachers for six months or maybe a year to gain that necessary and all-important quality work experience. Those whom belong to this group are often labelled “backpackers”. They return home with a more-inspiring CV to seek their fortune in the job market: China is simply a stepping-stone for their end goal. Hence, there is nothing in terms of a long-term commitment and their retirement plans, if any at all, are not in China. There is no escaping the fact that there is no money to be made for western teachers in China, but there is an opportunity to gain quality work experience that can sometimes be hard to get in the west. Not forgetting, a six-month stint teaching English in China can offer a thoroughly enjoyable time, which often lacks any real commitment to the students.
On the other end of the scale are foreigners who have already retired, possible in receipt of a pension, or are approaching retirement, who are undoubtedly in the twilight of their working careers and usually offer little in the way of youthful vitality and desire for change and improvement, though they may bring life-experience with them. There is no shortage of [elderly] foreign teachers in Jiangxi, whom often belong to a religious organisation and see religion not education at their primary motive.
However, it is the middle group that Jiangxi’s educational institutions should be seeking to recruit as teachers, people who are well qualified and young enough to carve out a successful career as a teacher, see teaching as a rest-of-their-life vocation, and have the desire and the willingness to put something into the system. Their experience would mature as they commit themselves to teaching. As Nanchang grows as a city in culture and in terms of wealth, so should its strategy for the successful employment of the people that will continue to make Nanchang a modern and vibrant city with a first-rate education system. However, for this group to be successfully recruited there would have to be a cataclysmic shift in thinking in terms of recruitment, beginning with a change to the yearly contract, as currently foreign teachers can only sign a yearly contract for a ten-month period only. Although, there are many more problems a long-term foreign teacher might faced, such as a lack of a satisfactory and fulfilling social life: many universities expect foreign teachers to idle their time away with students, which is fine for a short period only.
Hence, enforcing early retirement at 60 without a combining policy to augment the successful recruitment of the middle group will end only in a further shortage of foreign teachers and exacerbate an already trying situation. Foreigners around the age of 35 to 45 are left in limbo, as they quite possible haven’t worked long enough to earn a pension in their home country
(England has a retirement age of 68 for men; 60/5 for women) and the new policy of retiring at the age of 60 impedes them to work towards one in Jiangxi. It will be more difficult for this group to conceptualise a long-term commitment, coupled with the absence of a long-term work contract. There is simply no incentive to give up a life in the west to come to China and be a teacher -
the west experiencing an economic downturn doesn’t help in some respects.
To make matters worse the system of issuing a resident’s permit, which gives a teacher the permission to stay, has gone awry, since a new rule came out a couple of years ago. Gone has the ‘little green book’, which could be renewed during the particularly quiet time of the latter half of September or even October. Under the new system a new resident’s certificate is place into the passport every year. However, the issue date can only be given from the date the request is made, which means, given the fact, it would always be prudent to ask a week or two before the actual expiry date, the expiry date has receded over the years from the end of July to almost half way though June - which is before most contracts end
(unless there is a change the expiry date will continue to recede further!). Many foreign teachers face the dilemma that, effectively their visa runs out before the end of their contract - this may cause problems receiving the final payment. It also means that if a foreign teacher wishes to change jobs to another university, especially to another city, an application would have to be made around March, which might interfere with their current teaching commitments, as a trip to their new university may be needed. This could have been achieved in the long summer holiday under the old system. Of course, after a successful year’s teaching, travelling around China is out of the question, unless an extension is made for permission to stay, which is troublesome.
All of this adds up to imply that
[some] foreign teachers should go home. It seems to me that if improvements are sought in Jiangxi’s education system with respect to foreign teachers, then meaningful consultation with all interested parties, who have the potential and the willingness to make a commitment, would be a good place to begin. A committed foreign teacher to China’s education system will have made sacrifices to fulfil a lifelong or long term commitment. I dread to think that underpinning these new changes is the mistaken belief that all foreigners are millionaires and all are in receipt of a hefty pension from a generous and wealthy western government.
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