My job

On Thursday of this week I am going to an interview for the job I was already doing. Does that sound strange? I think so too, allow me to explain.

In Japan you can’t just get a job in an elementary or high school as an English teacher. Each area belongs to a Board of Education (BOE) and these boards hire one of the many English teacher recruitment companies to find their teachers for them. Hopeful English teachers apply to one of these companies, and if they are successful then they get to work in a school.

In reality most of these companies don’t offer much support to the teachers, like training or materials for example. They do help with visas, show you where your school is and introduce you to the other teachers, but that is all. From my company, for example, I got a book of English teaching games, a CD and a three-hour talk about teaching. Then they sent me off to my school with a collection of time sheets to be rigorously filled in and stamped every day so that they could pay me only for each minute I was actually in school. There are no sick days, if I don’t go in I don’t get paid. There is no health insurance and definitely no pension. What’s more, because the BOE pays the companies, and the companies then pay the teachers, they are free to take about 40% of our earnings for themselves.

It must be great business, a real monopoly. Once a teacher is assigned to a school and doing their job, the company doesn’t have to do anything else for them, beyond processing tax and salary information.

This still does not explain why I am going for an interview though does it. Every year the BOE rethinks which company they want to hire. The different English teacher recruitment companies offer contracts for various amounts of money and the BOEs sit back and consider them. Sometimes a company may have let down the BOE by not providing enough teachers. This is what has happened to me, the BOE for the area where my school is has been let down by my company and so has chosen a different one. On Thursday my interview is with the new English teacher recruitment company for the area my school is in.

Even if the interview goes well they cannot guarantee that I will be sent to the same school I was working in previously. The fact that I know the school, the teachers and the kids does not seem to mean much. Nor does it matter that the school actually wants me to stay, as the BOE likes to move teachers around for some reason.

There are some mystical BOEs out there though which do employ English teachers directly. These contracts are very hard to come by as the teachers rarely leave such positions. The pay is much higher, they can leave early if they have nothing to do and there are even sick days. For the rest of us though we have to put up with getting thrown around by the decisions of the big bosses and the flow of money between governments and companies.

Just when I was fitting in and feeling part of the school I might get tossed aside for a cheaper model. I can but try though, and saying that I had better go dry-clean my suit.