The International Schools Review Forum

Hello. It's been awhile since I've posted here. I am finally in China, but just teaching esl in a private school in Shenzhen. I want to stay in China and will be looking for a legit intl school job for next year, but probably just a tier 2 or 3 school. I am certified to teach History and Bio in the states, with 7 years High School experience. I would appreciate some advice on the best way to proceed and any input as to the situation in China. I would really rather teach History as this is my expertise, even though I know it will be harder to find a job. Next issue is healthcare. It's pretty dismal here from what I can see, but then again my insurance is hardly that and I must access the local system mostly. Pretty frightening. How good is the insurance at most intl schools and is the healthcare here in China acceptable when you have that kind of coverage? Being so close to Hong Kong, would the plan cover going there? This "traditional chinese medicine" stuff is freaking me out, being a science, evidence-based kind of guy. Don't want to start a debate on that if TCM is your thing. Just not for me. Can legit western, modern healthcare be found here? I appreciate your help.

Western oriented healthcare has served my family fine in Shanghai. This includes several trips to the emergency room at Shanghai United, doctor visits to both Shanghai United and Parkway and annual physicals at Parkway. I feel that we get good medical care when we need it.

Hi. With your qualifications and experience, teaching ESL is going to be seen as a detour in your career. Definitely try and get yourself into an international school ASAP.

As for healthcare it really does depend on your insurance or your budget. In Beijing, my wife and I had very good insurance through school and went to Beijing United where we had western/western trained doctors and state of the art equipment.

I would imagine that HK would also have very good facilities available if your have the cash or the insurance.

The larger cities like Beijing, Shanghai and HK will also have many, many international schools that would be interested in you. History/Humanities is not the most high needs fields but schools will hire teachers for those subjects pretty much every year so don't sell yourself short. Apply now for the fall. Just get a list of schools for the big cities and send out tons of CV's and letters of introduction.

The PRD (Shenzhen, Guangzhou, etc) has good western clinics that the good international schools' health plans cover. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lower-tier schools (Chinese private schools or Chinese public schools with international sections) have inferior health care though.

Good luck.

Good schools should have decent health insurance. When we were in Beijing, BJU was a fantastic hospital...my husband was diagnosed with cancer and received most of his surgery and chemo in Beijing, then transferred to finish chemo and have a stem cell transplant in the US (as we were switching schools and moving). Cost to us out of pocket for surgeries, pet scans, hospitalizations, chemo, and transplant? Less than $300USD. We would not have survived without the insurance from our China school and our new school.

My husband is history/social studies and I'm learning support--not a hot ticket combination. When he returned to the classroom after 15 years in admin, we received 3 offers at a job fair and are now moving on after 2 years in the classroom. Humanities, etc. is often seen as harder to get jobs in, but honestly, school have to hire a certain number of humanities teachers, just as they have to hire a certain number of math and science teachers. Be positive!