Recently, the Minhang Police Entry and Exit Administrative Department of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau began renewing efforts to combat the "three illegalities" for foreigners: illegal immigration, illegal residence and illegal employment. It has recently been discovered that many illegal language schools are using so-called "knock off" foreign teachers.
Last weekend, while checking a Hongqiao foreign language school, the Minhang Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry Administration Office saw a juvenile foreigner teaching English to a group of young Chinese children. During the inspection, it was discovered that this young foreigner was only 19 years old. According to him, he came to Shanghai from England for a vacation, holding a tourist visa. Not only did the foreigner not have any teaching qualifications, but he wasn’t even a college graduate. After further investigation, the police discovered that this was, in fact, an illegal teaching institution.
During the clean-up campaign, the Minhang Police found similarly employed fraudulent teachers and illegal language training schools, indicating that this phenomenon is not an isolated incident. Many of these foreign "backpackers" spend their weekends at these schools to earn travel expenses. Many of these schools abuse parents and students’ naïve convictions that foreigners who are native speakers are automatically qualified to teach.
According to the Minhang Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry Administration Office, the employment of foreigners in China has a strict approval system. They must apply to the labour department for the "Alien Employment Permit" and to the public security department for a residence permit in order to work in China. If working in education, they need to report to the Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs (BFEA) to acquire a "foreign expert certificate." To be qualified for a "foreign expert certificate", one needs at least a bachelor degree, two years teaching experience and a TESOL or TEFL certificate.
Since May this year, Minhang police received information on more than 100 cases of illegal employment and 40 foreigners were involved in illegal entry investigations, illegal residence and illegal employment. The Minhang office is currently working together with a number of formal foreign language training schools, helping to report illegal schools online and creating a MSN group where illegal foreign teachers may be reported; providing an effective platform for asking questions and sharing information.
Source: ifeng.com
Related links
China English Teaching Horror Stories
The Best Times to Apply for Teaching Jobs in China
5 Tips on Finding the Perfect Teaching Job in China
Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.
Keywords: minhang police illegal teachers illegal language schools china illegal foreign teachers China
All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.
Please login to add a comment. Click here to login immediately.
I will never understand those so called “native speakers” (at least some of them). Why they are here anyway? It is because their once prosperous countries are turning in to a shit hole (like many countries of the “non-natives”). They use to mistreat their country’s immigrants (including Chinese). Look at them now; they also became “wet backs”. But they still believe that everything must be only for them…
This not their fault, actually is the fault of their host. Now the host is China, soon it will be Brazil.
Mar 02, 2012 02:32 Report Abuse
Damien,
Did you want me to point out your 6 grammatical errors? I'll let you and your scholarly mind find them ;)
Jan 14, 2012 17:23 Report Abuse
What about all the illegal chinesed in the USA and UK been there for years working illegally
Oct 26, 2011 17:50 Report Abuse
Well i work in China, i dont have a degree and when I arrived i didnt have a TEFL certificate (have one now). My spoken English is not the best (from north of England) but its better than the Chinese teachers at the schools ive worked at. I dont think there would be so many jobs for people like me if there was not a real need for teachers here, Chinese teachers at my schools teach terrible spoken English, sure i get paid more but i teach better English...
The rules should be relaxed to allow people like me to work legally more easily...
Sure i get paid more because im a white English guy, im not saying thats right but its the way it is...the parents are paying for a certain image from their kids school, most ive spoken to dont want Black or Asian looking teachers, not only because whites are likely to have good English but they want their kids to see some white guys in class.
Sep 29, 2011 06:48 Report Abuse
It's because of people like you that this world will never find peace!
Think or think twice before you say something.
Human being think before talking.
This is a reply for you anonymous
Aug 04, 2011 00:02 Report Abuse
If you think the Chinese law enforcement officer is handling this issues badly, that's ok. I wanna correct one point of your opinion. It is nobody's nature of being this.
Dec 07, 2011 03:28 Report Abuse
That's right. I am personnally sorry for all people who come from Africa and can't find a English teaching job in China. Even China is moving forward quickly on Econimics and other fields, We need to behave in a better way in many aspects. I am a young generation of China and i wish things would be changed in the future.
Dec 07, 2011 03:16 Report Abuse
With all due respect my friend, I have happened to notice that many non-native English teachers often happen to teach English better than us native speakers. Often when asked why we say something a certain way and asked for a specific grammatical explanation, many natives find themselves lost for words, as many schools in England for example don't spend a huge amount of time on grammar. So granted, a native can definitely offer something a non-native can, however the opposite is also true sometimes. My view? I couldn't care less, if they can get a job and someone is willing to pay them, go for it man, I will lose no sleep over it. Free world and all that....
Mar 01, 2012 00:41 Report Abuse
Yes, people from Africa have their own mother tongues, which however they can't use to speak about any serious or academic subjects, since they were educated entirely in English (or French or Portuguese). At leat the Chinese have not been deprived of their own mother tongue by colonialism.
Mar 05, 2012 19:20 Report Abuse
Sign up with
Google
(
(