English teacher contracts: Negotiating

By Emma Longman

Finally! You’ve completed your teacher training and been offered a great job teaching in that exotic location – be it Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico or the Far East – the choice is endless. For almost all of these jobs you will need to sign a contract. So before accepting that exciting job somewhere in the world here are a few top tips and reminders to remember before signing.

1. A lot of contracts tend to mention teaching hours, without defining the difference between office hours and teaching hours. So where the teaching hours might be defined as ‘120 hours a month’, it’s unwise to assume you have to be at school only for those teaching hours.
Often, the boss will expect you to be at the school in-between classes, too – sometimes up to 40 hours a week. So make sure working and teaching hours are well-defined and that you know your total working hours per week.

2. You should be paid overtime for extra teaching hours – and I would advise to accept no less than about 50 RMB per hour (equivalent to about $6.00), or more if you can.

3.The contract will always mention something along the lines of arranging a visa. If it doesn’t – insist that it does and that it states exactly what type of visa the school will provide– a working visa. If the contract only specifies ‘help with the visa’, find out if that means the school will pay for the visa. By rights it’s the school’s duty to pay for your visa and get all the paperwork sorted out – it’s very difficult to do yourself from your home country. So be very specific.

4. Make sure the contract states all the paid holiday you are entitled to and ask if you can take extra, unpaid holiday as well.

5. Likewise, also ensure the contract states how many days off a week you will receive. If it doesn’t, then expect the school to suddenly call you to come in at unscheduled times.

6. Your duties and responsibilities as an employee should be made clear. Teaching is the first obvious duty, but some schools tend to demand extras such as helping market school and word it cleverly so it could cover anything – from creating presentations, to giving out leaflets in the street! This should not be expected of you as a teacher, but if it is it makes sense to know about extra duties before taking on the job.

teach abroad contracts next