'Teaching opportunities in Macau' Teaching Jobs  

Teaching opportunities in Macau

orlog from Zhuhai, China -

My name is Jon Bolstad. I have a B.S. in Education for the University of Wisconsin in the United States. I have been approximately 9 years teaching experience, 4 in the U.S. for public schools and another 5 here in Zhuhai for both public and private schools. I am curious as to the current demand for English teachers in Macau. How does teaching in Macau compare to mainland China. If anyone could enlightment on the current situation in Macau I would appreciate it. Thanks.

No trackbacks.

Reply #1 Rico Rosa from Macau -

I'm afraid the education system in Macau is truly abominable, dictated by self-made back stabbing demi-gods in an education department that think they can get away with anything. Simply put Jon, you are much better where you are in Mainland China. In fact, I've got my eyes set on China. There is no freedom nor room available for individual aspirations in the teaching arena in Macau. You do what you are dictated to do in an unhealthily abnormal ultra-conservative teaching arena, or else... you get back-stabbed to death resulting in the complete and utter demise of your personal and professional reputation. I label the education environment in Macau as that of a "vicious nest of toxic vipers" and Native English Teachers (NETs) like you and myself should think TWICE, THRICE and more before bringing in valuable English capabilities and priceless teaching skills such as yours into a compact, complicated and sinister little territory of ultra-conservative, closed-minded, sinister racist types that clearly demonstrate in their own indirect ways that they do not request, require or desire your presence in their preferred ultra-conservative Confucious Chinese little world. China IS the place to be for anything and everything, including developing your career as an educator, as the country genuinely strives to move forward. Mainland China is far much more deserving of you. As an example for this, the education department in Macau will bow to people with much less academic qualifications from Mainland China to teach in Macau. But for NET foreigners such as you and me, that untrustworthy bunch in the Macau education deparmtent full of pride, bias and prejudice WILL try to find reason to REFUSE you your teacher's license and thereby your much needed directive from them to the local labour department that will issue you with the required labour permit to teach here, ON THEIR WORD. If you are established in Mainland China, my sincere advice is to stay there. Problems in the workplace, like any other in the world exist. However, you may amplify the magnitude of suffering from school and education politics here in Macau to any degree imaginable. The culture of local Macau schools is simply a joke: teachers are afforded the lowest status of respectablility in a school. The average floor sweeper or toilet cleaner is held in much higher esteem by local school management such as the principal. The job stability of these low income school workers are far much more desirable than that of a teacher's. There is no such thing as a "long term stable job" when it comes to a teacher's position in any school in Macau because of variable toxic school politics in and out of the staffroom, EXCEPT for those teachers that are born with an innate nature to back-stab other teacher colleagues. Those brilliant teachers with exceptional teaching skills, proven/demonstrated professional abilities and/or with exceptional language skills, etc, etc, are normally the first (and quickest) to get murdered out of their jobs by vicious (normally women) school teachers working in the same school for 10 or more years. These vipers with power and influence within a school control the minds of their Principals and control just about everything else in their schools, and every Macau school has one or more of these types. Add to that, your average Macau school principal has absolutely no E.Q. when it comes to inter-personnel management and allocation of skills and professional expertise to the areas appropriately or desperately needed in his/her school. These and other mediaeval nightmares are particular true of Catholic schools in Macau of which there are plenty, especially where the Principal is a Catholic priest, or far worse still, a Catholic nun. God forbid, don't work for these demons from hell in priests' and nuns' clothing. They WILL ruin you in the end!! That's a sworn guarantee!! And as for the Chinese (communist) schools and public schools run by the local education department in Macau, you DO need to know influential people connected to these schools before they will even start to think of considering you. But then again, you don't have a Macau Identity card. No Macau ID card? No way. Labour permit? Too much of a hassle and the spineless Macau school principal WILL fear at the very risk of "displeasing" the education department at the mere thought of hiring a non-Macau resident.

Recently, there is a couple of expat run schools arriving on the scene in Macau, but they get flooded with applications for teaching posts in their schools and ALL of those applications sport a copy of a Macau ID card. The expats with Qualified Teacher's Status (QTS) working in these expat run schools are largely married to local Macau residents hence their Macau resident status.

In conclusion, the education system in Macau is still very much in the dark ages, and schools as well as the local education department in Macau seem perfectly comfortable with this. Changes and reforms, if any, are insignificant and largely made for "show". Proposals for real changes and reforms in education in Macau are frowned upon and therefore ignored and/or discouraged with subtle warnings for the proposer to keep quiet, as with any issue of a potentially explosive nature is dealt with in Macau, such as something as innocent as a suggestion to change. The best example is that the Macau education department still refuses to acknowledge the need for foreign NETs, standing firm in their most backward position that Macau schools should only hire Macau ID card holders WITH Univeristy of Macau 4-year Bachelor Degrees in Education that MUST SPECIFICALLY state the type of Major (e.g. English, Maths, Chinese, etc) AND for which sector of school education (e.g. Kindergarten, primary, junior secondary or senior secondary), NO EXCEPTIONS WHATSOEVER on pain of REFUSAL. And they will NOT notify you if THEY do NOT qualify you for teacher's status. They will only notify the principal that had miraculously decided to hire you of the typical refusal. And the slimy education department can and often will, as they so often do, alert other schools in Macau NOT to consider you once the department has refused you your right to live your life as an educator. In this way, they hold the proverbial license to kill, and "kill" you they absolutely will.

My sincere advice is: don't come here as an educator. Do a good charitable deed a la boys scout: warn other would-be NETs like yourself. Don't bring unnecessary suffering into your life, for you WILL rue the day you decide to come to Macau to teach, in schools or otherwise. That's a guarantee!!

Rico Rosa.

Reply #2 Rommel D. Belaguin (124.106.138.4) - Wed Jul 16 23:55:40 2008

Greetings of Peace! I am 39 years old, male, from the Philippines. I am a public elementary school teacher handling English for elementary grades for 9 years now. I am seeking a teaching job in mACAU.

THANK YOU

Name:           
E-Mail:         

Optional (please add link to our directory first)
Web Link:       

Link Title:     

Message:

Note: once you register your email address with World Jobs it is used across our whole network of forums and blogs. You can create seperate profiles for each forum or blog, but use the same login.