Helping teachers find the right teaching posts for them, by making the matches, translated…
The Lacking of Teachers
C fell short of a few points on this year’s teacher’s qualifications exams.
not my photo…
“I’d gotten grilled by my dad, I’m melting down now, finished my internship, but can’t get certified as a school instructor.”
“What plans have you for the future?”
“I’m really not certain, there was a small scale cram school that wanted me to work as the manager of courses, and there’s an invite from a friend to work in the industries too.”
“It would be such a shame, if you weren’t a teacher, you would’ve been a very good instructor,” I’d told her.
Last year, C started interning at my office, she’d added the workload, teaching the scouts, she’d not gotten paid enough, and she’d taken money out of her own pockets, to buy the snacks for the training sessions after school for the students, and, the students performed outstandingly, won awards, and viewed her as someone whom they can tell their dreams to, an instructor of life.
There was that light in C’s eyes, “Manager, am I fitting, to be, a school teacher?”
“Of course!”, C is eager to learn, has that passion toward her work, loved her students, she would definitely make a great teacher, “Just persist a bit longer. Maybe, for this year, you can work as a substitute, ‘doing and learning’, it can add to your teaching skills. Like how back when we’d started out, we were, a group of friend who’d not graduated from the teacher’s colleges, or those prestigious schools either, we’d worked for a couple of years in the field of education, including myself, in the end, more than half of the class gotten into the school of their choices, because the learning pyramid teaches us, that we’d learned the most, in teaching other people.”
C took my advice, and, a teacher was on maternity leave, she’d become a substitute for her class.
Actually, there were, over 40,000 nationwide just like C, who’d taken the courses, did their internships, or just received their teachers’ certificates, but not gotten a teaching post, and, of this population, about 20,000 are working as substitute teachers. These teachers, may not be lucky in test-taking, but, most were like C, with great academic records, well-trained, with passions, and are carrying the responsibilities of education the next generations in Taiwan, filling up the slots of educators due to the decline in birthrates.
Actually, these slots that needed filling are constantly happening. When a school teacher needed an emergency day off, the personnel at the school became like scattered ants, sending out mails, leaving messages on FB or on LINE, used their personal connections, to resolve this immediate problem. This huge need of instructors, we’d really needed, a nationwide network, to resolve.
The Human Resources of Substitutes
I’d been told by a friend who works for the Department of National Education, that the Department of Education is fine tuning in to the resources now, and set up a “Human Resource Bank of Substitute Teachers”. I’d followed the steps of the webpages, went and checked it out, wow, it truly is, convenient, it’d gotten nationwide now! This platform, saves time, human resources, and, lowered the information gap of the cities and the countries, and matched those in need of work, with a position quickly enough.
not my photo…
In order to know more, I’d phoned up the friend working at the department, and that, was when I learned, that the website is unlike all other job-hunting sites, here, the teachers’ teaching experiences are open for the schools to sort through, and the teachers were able to use and reuse their résumés again and again. Like C, or the passionate instructor who still wanted to offer something to teaching after they retired, can log in on the instructors’ pages, register, write out the basic information, then, look at the needs of the schools, and, if they’d found a school matching to their areas of expertise, they’d only needed to click, “Apply”. I’d immediately sent the link to the personnel offices at school, and, she’d only needed to log on to the webpages of the school, and select matching managers, add the posts, and when she sees a fitting teacher, send out the notices, and, there wouldn’t be the stresses of the past again.
C would still take the grammar questions and discuss it with me, she knew, that “at the scene” is the place where most learning occurs, and school is a place, where “anything CAN and WILL happen”.
I wish C the best, as well as all the teacher with the dreams, maybe, we’re at different places in our lives, but, we’re all, doing the same things, using a little professionalism, a little love, slowly, accumulating, in between the bells, to help strengthen the skills of the generations to come. So, whilst we’re still “at the scenes”, let ALL that’s possible, happen!
Because there are still many “wandering instructors” here, this, is why this online community is needed, because it can match the instructors with the specific requirements, with the right schools that needed their services, and, by making the matches right, the students are the ones who benefit the most, because education is the key to making the world better, and this, is what this human resources bank is doing, getting the right teachers, to the right teaching posts, and that, is what we’re needing here.
Life, the Obstacle Course 