The International Schools Review Forum

POLLUTION!

I have access to Search and ISS databases and I can't believe the number of jobs still open in China and other places.

Embassy School of New Delhi still looking?!

Pretty soon Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta, Moscow, etc. will be too polluted to draw any teachers.

Any opinions.

Add climate change to that. Should I be looking at Europe then?

It might be pollution, but I think other things are at play. The Embassy School in Delhi is, I believe, still dealing with visa issues because of a US/India incident. I believe many positions are still open in China because there are more "international" schools than you can imagine. I'm sure some people are turning down jobs because of pollution, but based on the number of people who have signed on for next year at the school at which I teach in China, it doesn't seem to be turning people off.

The issue is more complex and a multi factor issue, of which environmental hazards are one component.

"Pretty soon Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta, Moscow, etc. will be too polluted to draw any teachers."
Maybe those cities will still be attractive to some Americans. See below for a quote from Time Magazine.

"More than 40% of Americans live in a place with unhealthy air quality, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. But, when it comes to how bad that air pollution can get, there’s a real range.
"Los Angeles, which has some of the most polluted air in the country, experiences unhealthy levels of particle pollution for the equivalent of nearly a month out of each year and unhealthy ozone pollution for the equivalent of more than two months annually."

I hear Flint, Michigan is looking attractive to itinerant teachers...

I concur with @Walter, LAX has one of the worst air pollution problems in the world.
No ones immune, even England "The number of premature deaths attributed to particulate pollution has risen, government figures show".

Apart from AES Delhi, what top schools are still recruiting more than an odd position or two?

I think the tier one schools are doing just fine. That includes JIS, which has had so much upheaval in recent years, or schools in those cities mentioned.

It often seems to be the same schools each year struggling to fill positions at this time of year. Do any good schools bother attending Spring Fairs?

It might be that AES Delhi is an outlier, nothing more.

@MartElla

All the spring fairs are dump fairs, unless your in that region and the fair is just a swap meet. Remember how bad the Bethesda fair was in summer?

We filled all positions for K & up right away...so pollution wasn't an issue. The issue now is ISS and SA not providing qualified applicants for ECE programs. They do little to advertise and recruit potential candidates. I have suggested we go out on our own and direct market to ECE teacher education programs in the US, Canada, etc

@Basmad6

That doesnt mean that pollution or environmental factors were not an issue, but the limited knowledge and lack of experience living in those conditions weighted the benefits in favor of the costs.

Most regulatory authorities either do not directly credential and license EC providers, or include ECE as part of the primary/elementary credential.

I won't even consider schools in those areas. No amount of money is worth the years of your life.

I hate when people make assumptions...
Some people choose their school for the location, some choose it for the package and disregard the location and make everyone and themselves miserable, some people just bounce around period.

Saying someone chooses China because they're uneducated about the conditions...well... I may be safer here then flynt Michigan where they've knowingly poisoned the water and insist it's safe or anywhere in Oklahoma where they've fracked the land to the point they have major earthquakes ANd contaminated water...but I digress.

SA and ISS fail to properly recruit applicants with ECE credentials, period. They focus solely on k-12 and forget that many international schools have ECE programs, some thriving and some wanting to thrive but cannot without decent teachers. An education focusing on ECE and equal credentials are no less valuable then k-12. Without excellent ECE programs forming the foundations in education you have animals in your school age years... Perhaps one day people will actually have respect for their ECE teachers.

@Basmad6

Comparing all of China to one single city is disingenuous. Compare a country to a country or a city to a city. Compare Beijing to Flint and thats representative.

I disagree, EC credentials and ECE are less valuable in IE than K-12 (KS1-KS4).

@Basmad6 Good schools care as much about the quality of teaching and learning for their 3 and 4 year olds as they do about their 13 and 14 year olds. And it's hard to get top quality early years teachers, so they are in high demand!

More admin lip service and smoke and mirrors.

No they dont, its easy to say good ISs care about everything that someone else also cares about. They care far more about secondary and especially school leaving levels than they do ECE. Its expensive day care, and its hard finding good ITs in ECE because there isnt a demand for educating good ECE educators. Look at the labor statistics and salary scales in DE.