TEFL on the rocks?

The Teaching of English of as a Foreign Language ¹ (TEFL) is a massive worldwide industry. Not only is it a foreign currency earner in a number of countries such as Australia and the UK, but it has been used as a cover for human trafficking.

I entered the profession because I wanted to return to south-east Asia and as a qualified and experienced school teacher I felt that this was a route which would provide me with a level of income sufficient for my needs. And so it has generally proved.

When I first arrived, at the tail end of 1987, I had been recruited by EEP, a language institute in South Jakarta, equipped with an internationally recognised Certificate in TEFL (CTEFL), gained after a grueling six week course in London at a cost of £1,000, an 18 month contract, somewhere to live and a return air ticket. I then learned the intricacies of syntax, grammar, collocation, phonetics and other confusing stuff, as well as how to pass on the knowledge to bright non-native speakers of all ages (6 - 83 years), at all levels, from elementary (SD) to university, and the full range of courses, from general to specific purposes (e.g. business), and academic, including international exams (the UCLES suite, ToEFL, IELTS).

When I arrived, there were as many as 50 similarly qualified colleagues, although I understand that this particular establishment has since shrunk to just a small branch in Bandung. The head office of another company I worked for, ILP, had 2,000 students passing through the doors of its main centre every week and employed 60 native speakers, all university graduates with a CETFL, and 40 Indonesian teachers of English who had 'graduated' from in-house training courses whose instructors were native speakers such as myself.

Then in 96/7 the Asian Economic Crisis (krismon) hit, swiftly followed by the civil unrest which unseated Suharto and ushered in reformasi. This lead to a massive exodus of expatriates, not only teachers. I surmise that most of the native speaker teachers who remained did so out of a contentment with family life here (e.g. me), out of a perceived lack of opportunity 'back home', or their sheer indolence.

Apart from a few plum positions with universities, or foreign government sponsored organisations such as the British Council and the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF), all language institutes then had a simple credo - bums on seats. In other words, they were profit-driven.

New business models were set in motion. ILP, for example, followed the franchise route. Their best local (Indonesian) teachers were recruited to be the principals, known as Academic Co-ordinators in the international chain EF which provided the franchise model. ILP's in-house training programme for new teachers was shortened to three weeks from the previous four or five. Native speakers with an in-depth knowledge of the cultural norms of English and the reasoning behind the long-established methodology being in very short supply, inevitably and unfortunately the level of English and the quality of teaching has suffered.

New avenues of employment were opened in the formal school sector with the establishment of privately owned 'national plus' schools which were supposed to offer foreign curricula and, more recently, 'international' schools, which in the main have been classes within established schools which, although supposedly offering English native speakers teaching other subjects, have mainly been distinguished by the provision of air conditioning.

And this sector is where problems have arisen and the proposed 'solutions' offered by the Department of Education (Depdiknas) have thrown the TEFLing industry into turmoil, and its teachers into a state of insecurity, if not paranoia.

Not unexpectedly, one particular organisation, Yayasan Badan Pendidikan Kristen - Penabur, may have been the catalyst. I don't intend to go into my successful case (but yet to be finally resolved) legal case against them; if you want the gory details, my diatribes plus details of complaints from  parents, students and other teachers, then either search 'Penabur' in the box provided on the right or click this link on my 'schooling' blog.

In the early stages of the Penabur project that employed me, a member of the Board of Management told me in all seriousness, "Parents want to see a white face in the classroom." (He also referred to local teachers as 'monkeys'.)

Apart from the sheer offensiveness (and inaccuracy) of that statement, it was an indication that all was not well within Penabur, that they had lost sight of the core values of schools.

A year or so ago, parents of students enrolled in the 'international class' in a Penabur senior high school were horrified to discover that the supposedly qualified native speaker English teacher was, to put it bluntly, illiterate. They organised a protest, a delegation I understand, to Depdiknas.

As a result, revised employment criteria are now being enforced - apparently. I add that caveat because Depdiknas has not unexpectedly misfired in its aims.

I was first alerted to the issue by a couple of emails from a correspondent who works for the Australian company TBI (which stands for The British Institute, even though the shares of the original British owners, Bell, have been bought out by an Australian company). He wrote: The Ed Dept now has a checklist (at least in our case) - one of the things to be checked is whether we have HIV or drugs in our urine. Oh, and we have to have a sworn translation of our CV. I am now illegal here pending the outcome of all this hullabaloo. Bit scarey really.

The gossip has it that ILP, Wall Street, a recent American entrant, and a local start up company, AIM, have had to reassess their employment of  native speakers.

I have been unable to track down the checklist or a copy of the regulations issued by Depdiknas but if the above is true, then one must query the notion that an HIV test involves urine; surely it is blood that needs to be tested! As for a sworn translation of a CV, this is no guarantee of the truth therein. Besides, as a CV is a set of data - names, dates, addresses and the like - most of the content is untranslateable. It is as it is!

A bit of googling has produced a TBI online ad for overseas recruits dated 2010-10-05. I take this to mean 5th October, although it could well be 10th May, thus preceding the current paranoia disarray in the industry.

Qualifications
CELTA, Trinity or equivalent certification (120-hour face-to-face (not online) course with assessed teaching practice) and a university degree. We prefer teachers with experience, but are prepared to consider newly qualified applicants.
N.B. Please note, due to Indonesian employment regulations, we are only able to employ native speaker teachers holding passports from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States.

The benefits offered by TBI are as good as they get and the good news is that Irish applicants are now welcome. The original list, issued by Depdiknas some 15 years ago, of those countries which have English as the first language and which are eligible as recruitment sources did not include Ireland.

The bad news, is that there is no new news about the employment of fluent (and literate) English speakers in schools and universities. Whereas the success of language schools is largely determined by their popularity, best engendered through word of mouth, the same cannot be said of grade schools which are obliged to teach subjects determined by Depdiknas.

Native speakers of English are also recruited by the private school sector, dominated by 'national plus' schools and, more recently, by schools which label themselves as 'international' because they are expected to teach the curricula of other countries. Originally, international schools were exclusively for the children of foreign nationals, but since 2003 (Act No. 20, year 2003 on National Education System)², Indonesian nationals have been permitted to enrol their children.

These schools are not totally exempt from the dictates of Depdiknas as Indonesian children are required to sit the flawed national exams.

As the Warden of the fictional St.John's University in The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies (pub. Penguin 1982) says, "Education for immediate popular consumption is more popular than ever, and nobody wants to think of the intellectual tone of the nation."

What needs to be understood is that the upgrading of English in schools requires a recognition that students have different needs based on cultural and emotional needs, as well as their individual skills, talents and 'intelligences', as well as 'content knowledge'.

Act No.20 states: English is to be used as the medium of instruction for science, mathematics and core vocational subjects from Year 4 of primary school and throughout junior secondary school, senior secondary school and vocational secondary school.

Teachers must possess the competence required to teach their subjects through English.

An analysis² of the 'international' schools points out that in 2007 and 2008 the Ministry of National Education, using TOEIC (the Test of English for International Communication) as its instrument, carried out a study of the English language competence of 27,000 teachers in 549 international standard junior secondary, senior secondary and senior vocational schools. 

The findings of this study (Depdiknas 2009) showed that more than half of all teachers fell into the lowest competency band (‘novice’, scoring between 10 and 250 points).  Meanwhile, fewer than 1% of teachers fell into the top two bands (‘advanced working proficiency’ scoring between 785 and 900 points and ‘general professional proficiency’ scoring 905-990 points). 

A little more online investigation produces the following recent quote from Education Minister Mohammad Nuh who said that there are 2.6 million teachers in Indonesia, and around 57.4 percent or some 1.5 million of whom have Strata-1 degree while the rests (sic) are still vying to gain teaching certificate.

Further research indicates that barely 40% of subject teachers are actually qualified to teach that subject. Christine Hakim, the noted Indonesian actress and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNESCO, suggests that at least 2 million volunteer or part-time teachers are employed in Indonesia.

The TBI recruitment ad quoted above has been the norm for recruited native speaker teachers as long as I can remember; they (we) have brought untold benefits to Indonesians seeking advancement in their careers without the need to go overseas.
  
That Depdiknas is requiring that only native speaker teachers of English who have obtained a degree in education, rather than in other subjects, to seek employment in Indonesian schools is nonsensical when the criteria for its own 'local' teachers are nowhere near being met, and is yet another example of the bureaucracies' ability to mistake a tree for a forest.

This is not to say that the TEFL industry's standards cannot be improved, but a more considered approach is sorely needed. Teaching anything is not an easy option and, as in other countries, teachers do not enter the profession to financially enrich themselves. Teaching can be extremely stressful and the rewards are generally intangible.

Rather than implementing piecemeal 'solutions' which create further problems, the education sector - both private and public - needs a thorough review to ensure that national (and regional) social, rather than political, objectives are met.

As it is, the pluralism so often promulgated is showing signs of increased fragmentation.
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¹ aka TESOL - Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages and TESL - Teaching of English as a Second Language.
²An interesting analysis of the problems faced by 'International' schools can be found here.
My title is taken from a post on Ross McKay's blog. The current problems faced by the majority of non-Indonesian English teachers here in Indonesia was, however, forecast back in February on the Living in Indonesia forum.