Friday, September 30, 2016

NYC Social Justice Curriculum Fair-y Tale

Hi Erik: 

I was hoping for a presence  of The Bread & Roses  and Community Curriculum at the Social Justice Curriculum Fair
so my colleagues could  see how to implement "language development through content area" socially conscious lessons.

I would be curious to see what my fellow educators have done to bridge this gap in public schools. Practical advice from a colleague who has been writing lesson plans for such classes and even facilitating a student club examining such issues is needed. I am offering such advice in vain. 

It is hard to believe that, in the four years since my retirement, under the present circumstances in the Dept. of Ed.,  so many educators have developed socially conscious curriculum to make my tried and true curriculum addenda to the fair. 

A  Fair without a Facebook page or Website is unthinkable; that should have been the first consideration at your general meeting. I am waiting with bated breath to upload material to  what you "may" soon be launching. 

Fraternally yours,

David Barry Temple




From: Social Justice Curriculum Fair <sjcurriculumfair@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2016 10:03 PM
To: David Temple
Subject: Re: Social Justice Curriculum Fair! Executive Board Report Back!

Hi David,
Thanks for getting in touch. Sorry we have not gotten back to you sooner. We have received a high volume of correspondence lately. Unfortunately currently we only have the capacity for in-person curriculum sharing. However, we may be launching an online component soon which would allow educators to upload material. We will let you know once we get that running so you can share your material!

-Erik

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 29, 2016, at 2:57 AM, David Temple <johnnyshortwave@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hello: I mailed this request to you a week ago and have not gotten a response yet. Your initial letter said, "Email us at sjcurriculumfair@gmail.com if you're interested in helping out or have any questions." Why have you not responded? Perhaps my request for information and offer have gone to your junk mail box; this should not be the case when you solicit questions. Please check and respond so I can see your true intention to agitate NYC teachers for a better curriculum.

Yours truly,
David Barry Temple 

Dear Fellow or Lady Educator: 

I am thrilled to see that you have taken up the torch of activism in NYC to make educational notions work for the children of working class parents. I would love to be a presenter  and promote the Bread & Rose and Community Curriculum, which I created and used in my ESL classes at FDR High School for twenty years, included in this Social Justice Curriculum Fair on Oct. 29, 2016. 

Unfortunately, I am living in Taiwan, having retired from the system four years ago, and am unable to attend.

Is there any provision for having my curriculum made available for fellow educators at the fair? I have a two-hour video called "Read the World and the World Reads You"  made while giving a lecture to 120 EFL students at a middle school here in Taiwan, along with the Power-Point Presentation I made to accompany the presentation highlighting aspects of the curriculum.

If there were a booth for my use, with my contributions to social justice curriculum made available to colleagues at the fair, perhaps it could be impressive and useful for them. Let me know the possibilities of it happening and we can start a correspondence which would include my sharing such details with you.

I wish you success with the fair. It is a great thing MORE-UFT is doing for teachers. 

Fraternally yours,

David Barry Temple




From: MORE-UFT <more@morecaucusnyc.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 7:18 PM
To: Dave Temple
Subject: Social Justice Curriculum Fair! Executive Board Report Back!


MOREHeader.jpg

Dave -- 
organize-fish.png

In the wake of our excellent first general meeting of the year we have two exciting updates for you:
1. Social Justice Curriculum Fair!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if NYC's educators all got together and shared our best curriculum ideas on educating for social justice? That's exactly what is going to happen on October 29th at the NYC Social Justice Curriculum Fair at City-as-School.

You are invited to sign up to share curriculum you have created, or simply to attend and get resources to bring back to your classroom.
Please RSVP here as soon as possible to let us know you're coming.
We need your help to make sure educators across New York are aware of this opportunity. There are many ways you can help spread the word:
• Forward this email to colleagues and friends
• Share the event on Facebook
• Print out the linked quarter sheets (front) (back) to distribute to colleagues
 Put up a poster in your school! Come to a meeting at 7:00pm at the CUNY Graduate Center on Wednesday 9/21 and pick up a beautiful 11x17 color poster with artwork designed by NYC public school art teacher Nicole Schulman. (poster image linked here). If you can't come by Wednesday, send us an email at sjcurriculumfair@gmail.com to find another time.

Also, if you know a community organization or curriculum development nonprofit that would like to table, please ask them to get in touch.

Email us at sjcurriculumfair@gmail.com if you're interested in helping out or have any questions.

See you at the fair and please remember to RSVP!
2. UFT Executive Board Report Back
For the first time since 2007, the UFT Executive Board meeting included representatives not endorsed by Michael Mulgrew and Randi Weingarten's Unity Caucus. The 7 elected high school board members are from MORE-NEW ACTION.

Read the resolution against abusive administrators that UFT leadership/Unity caucus tabled here
Read the full minutes here


MORE-UFT
http://more.nationbuilder.com/
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Saturday, September 10, 2016

This American Eagle Has Landed

8-29-16
     It is a Monday morning and the working stiffs are headed back to their underpaying, over-timing jobs. Taiwan students will be returning to their overworking, and in the case of EFL, quite useless classes. This past weekend was the last weekend of summer vacation, but summer weather, and the vacation, continues for me, a retiree. This week, I will even start riding my bike again after a three-week wait to recuperate from hernia surgery I had August  4th  so I wouldn't upset the American Eagle bushiban schedule in the fall. 
     I will start my last American Eagle class tomorrow. I will not tell,  until management asks, that I am ending my four-year stint at their bushiban in January 2017. 

 8-31-16 
     American Eagle classes began yesterday. Ignoring my request that one or the other unruly students would not be in my class together, Celine (the franchise owner-manager) put both Jasper and Cody in my new class. I was so upset at prospect of another bad class that I told Kammy (the teachers' director) I wasn't coming in the next day until the problem was rectified; I then went up to teach the class. There were eight students from last term, minus Ula, Kimi, I-Shin, Ray and Linda (who I later learned were grouped in an evening class). After class I told Kammy I would teach the class but not one student more could be added. I think she agreed. I reminded her that, in June, I was told Cody would not be in my class again. In any event, I am happy to be back in class; I feel complete, and my day has more structure and division. 

 9-1-16

While in the convenience store having coffee, I met Max, a young bike-riding teacher new at American Eagle. He suggested we go out that evening after class to chat a bit and I took him up on it. He summarized his life and I summarized mine. I told him of my issues with the management of American Eagle; how they tried to renege on a contractual agreement to pay an additional 25 NT per hour for each student over twelve in a class; my way of insuring the best teaching environment. I told him how when I reminded management about the agreement, instead of complying, I was accused of a misunderstanding, blamed on the last teacher's director, and that I should be satisfied since the second class I was teaching was losing money for them because of my salary.   

9-2-16 
     I basically quit American Eagle last evening in a Line IM conversation with Kammy. I told her I wasn't happy teaching there anymore.  I laid out the reasons; not being given a second class in the  evening, no opportunity for professional growth, being excluded from school functions like Halloween Haunted House and the field trip, and being told last year I was making the school lose money; but there were a lot of other little things I didn't mention, like not being welcomed back by management, and my bike spot being given to another teacher (I don't believe Max, who I went out with after class, took it on his own) and last but not least, Cody and Jasper in one class despite my concerns. 
     When I saw the two boys' names on my class list the first day, Tuesday, I complained immediately and told Kammy I wasn't coming in the next day unless at least one of them was removed from the class. However, in deference to the students, whom I love, I softened my tone after class and requested that no more students be added if they both stayed; Kammy said okay, but not in writing.           I would rather have twelve nice students than eight with Cody and Jasper. Cody does no class work (not even copying answers after I go over them) and Jasper does the minimum exercises required after wasting as much time playing and disrupting the class; the request that he wait to chat until after he finishes his exercises goes unheeded, and he never does the enrichment exercises I provide for early finishers. 
Rude Jasper (front) in a great class 
     Cody is somewhat fluent verbally, but has a foul mouth and inappropriate thoughts. Yesterday he said he wanted to kill someone. When I said killing is wrong he pointed out that chickens are killed, too. I  pointed out the difference between “kill” and “slaughter” for food. Later, when I explained a new book word, "tan", I gave examples from classroom objects, but then said some people have tans from the sun. Cody said, "I hate black people." Later, when I reminded the children not to speak Chinese in class, but that speaking English was okay, he asked if he could then say "fuck", because it was English, too. This behavior is not going to stop. Perhaps the children who left class tried to avoid being with Jasper and Cody; I learned from Max that the five children were in his evening class, a class that, I believe, should have been offered to me. 
      I ended the IM with Kammy at midnight when I turned the phone off. When I turned it on an hour later, I saw she had added that they agreed to let me go but asked me to wait until they found a new teacher. I replied that if Cody was removed, I would stay until the end of the term; it would be my last there. 

9-3-16 
One of the friendliest crews that came and went.
      It is amazing I was able to stay at American Eagle almost four years. By far, I was the employee with the longest tenure. It is a testament to my resiliency and professionalism, but even that cannot undo poor management. Poor management does not recognize talent; it only sees the bottom line; profit. How many good Taiwanese teacher liaisons they lost every six months is amazing; I can count five from last year alone. Only their own family member, Kammy, who sacrificed a private career a year ago when the last teacher' director resigned, is still there; there are three new assistants in addition to the inexperienced English-speaking window-dressing, one exploited full-time employee there two years, and one other part-time bloke who started there last term. Now I am gone, too.
       I suggested to the teachers' director that I would stay until the end of the term if Cody was removed from my class, but it was not acceptable to management; perhaps his mom paid extra tuition to have me, as Jasper's parent had,  and management dreaded giving tuition back. Same is true for Jasper. Now management has an excuse to keep their tuition since I resigned. 

9-5-16
     Something didn't feel right about my resignation from American Eagle. I sent a Line message to Kammy asking if they had found a replacement for me, yet. When she said they hadn't I said that I would go in that day to get my final pay, but not teach if Cody or Jasper were in the room; I would not teach Cody because that was the way it was supposed to be when I left in June, and not Jasper because Celine told him I was leaving, a notion that would make him even less cooperative than usual. I then told her I would finish the term if they were gone. She was surprised and wanted to confirm that I was resigning. I reiterated that I would finish the term if Cody was gone and told her to scroll back and see what I said at 1:00 am Friday morning at the tail end of our IM. She admitted she had a miss sight and thought I wanted to resign immediately. 
     So this is how it stood; there were two scenarios:
1. Cody or Jasper are not removed from my class; I will teach it and leave, not to return Tuesday. I cannot stand both of them in one class for five months.
2. Cody is removed from my class; I will complete the term and leave at the end of my contract in January '17.  I can isolate Jasper and tolerate him; at least he does work.
     I hoped, before I rode off to class at 4:00 pm, I would have an answer. If Kammy told me they had another teacher to replace me, I wouldn't go in.  Management at American Eagle had no bearing on the decision I made in June to resign from the five-day responsibility; I wanted more flexibility in my schedule. It may come sooner than planned; I can go either way. 

9-5-16 
      With a whole new staff every term, foreign fly-by-nighters and qualified Taiwanese teaching assistants the same, hemorrhaging students, American Eagle’s Chong-De franchise, is going down fast. Now they don’t  have me to lend them pedagogical legitimacy. 
     I had a Line IM with Kammy last evening. I didn’t get a response to my status at the school by 2:50 pm, so I contacted Kammy again. They hadn't contacted me to tell me their decision; they were waiting for me to go in and teach until they found a replacement for me. That wasn’t going to happen. Then I got a response:
       Kammy wrote that Cody passed the class and that they needed three reasons to change his class; that his four cousins would leave the bushiban if he left, a moot point since I didn’t suggest and didn’t expect him to be told to leave the bushiban; only have his class changed. 

     I told her I wasn’t feeling well; she said she was trying; trying to do what? Get me to go in until they found a replacement for me. I told her I was on my way to see the doctor for a little headache I was having and that I would see her tomorrow.
      Kammy wouldn’t give up trying to get me to go teach temporarily and begged me to give them some time, not to honor me, but so they could find a replacement since I balked at their intention; they know I am the only teacher that could handle Cody or Jasper. I messaged that the solution was simple; to give me a different class and switch teachers. Kammy panicked and brought out her best defense; the other classes have problem children, too, she said. I threw back in her face what she said earlier about not changing Cody’s class because he passed the mid-term and final tests in my class. 
     “I am a good teacher,” I replied. “I can handle any problem child; I taught two difficult children last term and they both passed their tests.” She then said switching a teacher from another class would be a problem because they needed to talk with the parents and give them a reason (not that they needed to talk with the other teacher.) Any parent or child at American Eagle would be delighted to have me as their teacher, more than the unqualified English-speakers they drag in off the street to stand in front of their rooms.
      Since it was obvious Kammy was stalling for management, I told her I must leave because they were not fair to the teachers or the children. Again, she accused me of suggesting they get Cody out of their bushiban saying that solution was best for me and not the school?!?
In the end, I wrote as I wrote last week; management can keep the six hours pay they owe me (4325NT-$135) or mail it to me, as they wish. I have no plan to go back or chat with anyone at American Eagle again. My only regret is I didn’t leave after the first day this term. I just deleted Kammy and American Eagle from Line. She can still call my home phone line.

9-6-16 
      Look what I just found; posted 9 pm yesterday in Taiwan English Teaching Jobs:
Lee Teddy

Need a part time teacher in Taichung Beitun.

Monday to Friday 4:30-6:00 p.m
650NT/HR
Please pm me or call 0977295061.
      I was getting 750 NT-$23.43 an hour; Teddy is offering 650 NT-$20.31, $3 less! Plus the poor working stiff who takes the job, in addition to teaching two out-of-control boys, will have half the salary taken away for taxes and Universal health care, not that Teddy will really pay the government; I’m sure management there will find a way to pocket anything they can get away with.
      I thought I had deleted Kammy but I realized I only deleted the dialogue when Leona said I had an IM from her on Line. In it she said she taught the class I abandoned, the two boys behaved and passed their quiz, implying that it was my problem. I wrote back that their management not only had to deal with losing face but also losing teachers, students, and teaching assistants. She thanked me for teaching at their bushiban and they would mail me my final pay; I thanked her. Management will be thrilled to save at least 750 NT-$23.43 a week, or more if they pocket the withholding tax and Universal health care contribution, too. Hah!

9-7-16
I savor every moment for what it is, and recognize that growth comes out of nothing. I also recognize there are phases in my life that I leave and enter, people who I meet and stay with long, those I part with, and every kind of mildly positive relationship in between; there has to be some positivism or potential of it.
The same is true with the places I frequent, with one exception: a workplace. I had to stay at FDR until my 25th year in the system so I could get my full pension. I stayed at American Eagle as long as I saw any good coming from it. I have the luxury of retirement and pension to not stay at a workplace any longer than I wish. Here I am in the study room, typing into my journal, and not in a room with young students, because I choose not to be there putting up with bad textbooks, and two unruly youngsters that distract me from teaching and the class from learning. It didn’t have to be this way, but management wouldn’t budge and make adjustments as they should, for the betterment of the six lovely youngsters in the class, and a teacher who has been friendly, caring, on time every day, and following the syllabus for four years. It was my pleasure to leave their bushiban after my pleasure, and professionalism in being there, was eroded beyond repair. 


the American Eagle has landed,

this spacey traveler disembarking, 
a testament to resiliency and professionalism,
but even that cannot undo poor management,
their only prophet, the bottom line
that does not recognize alien talent
over the hill and through the woods,
new vistas on his palette


Part-time teacher needed.
Monday to Friday 4:30-6:00 p.m $650/hr
It's a small class and all teaching materials provided.
If you are available please pm me.
0977295061

Taichung City
Part-time teachers needed!
Monday to Friday 4:30-6:00 p.m
Pay: $650/hr

Friday, September 9, 2016

"Child Labour" Readers' Theater Workshops


      In June 2016, Miss Sunny Chen, the teacher from Guang-Jheng Middle School in Da-Li, Taichung, contacted Kang-Shen Publishers of EFL textbooks, and had me help her organize a Readers Theater presentation with the students for next term. On Wednesday, July 20th, I began the first of four weekly three-hour workshops at the school that had me coach students in the Readers Theater  last year. Other teachers who had assisted her last year, were too busy and begged off the project; she really needed my help. 

     I gave Sunny a selection of Readers Theater scripts from the internet and  a script, "Child Labour," I have had since FDR High School days, from Lost Futures:The Problem of Child Labor. It was one of the resources I used with the Bread & Roses Curriculum and club. I never had the chance to use the script though. We may use it now with her Readers Theater troupe. If so, I will have to edit it down to six minutes and the maximum eight players. I added "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister as the musical kicker.

                          https://youtu.be/CQ0ftoiIQxU

     I made Sunny and the troupe aware that I have a silk screen frame for a Sweatfree T-shirt the children could use to make costumes for the presentation. It would be like having a Bread & Roses Club in Taiwan! 
On the morning of July 28, 2016, I returned for the second workshop with the students from Guang- Jheng Middle School. I had been asked in June to help prepare the students over the summer for the contest to be held in November 2016. Originally, I thought of using “Child Labour,” but when I introduced it to the twelve students in the troupe the previous week, along with the Christmas Carol script I had saved from a Readers’ Theater troupe I advised a few ago, it didn’t get a good reaction; some thought it would be too hard and no fun. They liked Christmas Carol better, and so, though their teacher, Sunny Chen, had gone ahead and copied the eight-page play, she rush-copied Christmas Carol, too.

 With scripts in hand, I assigned roles to all twelve students, making four understudies, and we read through the script, giving intonation that they repeated. I even some choreographic suggestions such as lying on the floor holding a pantomime flower on my chest to suggest a deceased Scrooge in “Christmas future.” The students were motivated and ready to do it, but there was one problem. The skit I brought was from another local school that might want to keep it for themselves. When I got home, I checked my Education-Emancipation-Organization blog to find the post I’d written about Christmas Carol. I found it, sure enough, and realized it was from Shwang-Wen Middle School, done two years ago, and they had won third place in their region with it. We couldn’t really do it without permission. I asked Sunny Chen to investigate and make sure we could. She asked a few teaching colleagues and all agreed: only a modified Christmas Carol would do.

      At the second workshop, I shared the dilemma we had with the students. Though Sunny could have chosen one of dozens of other Readers’Theater skits from the internet, she went with my gut feeling that Child Labour would be a good one, and so It was modified into a six-minute, eight student skit. The students went along with it, took out the copies they had previously been given, and we began a first read-through modifying the script as we went, with the students making adjustments on their script. I asked for and they offered their opinions about details and word substitutions. It all worked out so well.

      One major revision we had to make to the original script was to choose the oppressive child labor victims; would it be the boy who worked in the coffee plantation or the girl who was a housekeeper, or both? We took a vote, three times, until all the students participated. The outcome: there would be one girl victim of child labor in their script. We modified the script from that angle eliminating the scenes that about the boy victim. We whittled the cast in the original script down from twelve to eight. 
    We went to the last of four readers’ theater workshops. I though I would give a seated six minutes reading of the “Child Labour” script because I couldn't act it out because of my operation, or even use my voice too strongly. It was to be recorded as a go-to for the troupe to practice. The contest is in four months. I thought I would try to give the troupe the gist of it and do final editing, but that's not what happened. 
     I didn’t give a “seated six minute reading” reading of the Child Labour script; I did it standing, a few times, and sitting another few times while cutting it down to six minutes, with a student time-keeper using a stopwatch.
      I am satisfied with the outcome of the workshop and am confident that this script, with a proper presentation, will win the Readers’Theater contest in November. It may be one of the most important scripts ever presented in Taiwan’s otherwise abused English Readers Theater contest custom. The students have no idea of the depth of the problem of child labor, and in denial that it even occurs in Taiwan. However, I must say, students in Taiwan are more down to earth than the dumbed-down American students in the new teach-to-the-test system being promoted in the U.S. 

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Pension commission a ‘circus’: teachers’ group

Pension commission a ‘circus’: teachers’ group

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

National Federation of Teachers’ Unions policy researcher Wu Chung-tai, right, accompanied by union president Chang Hsu-cheng, speaks at a press conference in Taipei, announcing that the group is withdrawing from the Pension Reform Commission.

Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

The Pension Reform Commission has degenerated into a circus of political showmanship, the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions said yesterday, announcing its withdrawal.
“We do not deny that past meetings of the commission have helped bring transparency to related information, but we do not see how it has been able to promote more accurate information or improve social harmony,” union president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said, adding that the commission had degenerated into “political theater” as Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) failed to restrain false remarks.
Chen chairs the commission, which President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) asked to search for a consensus on pension reform among interest groups prior to a National Affairs Conference.
“Because commission meetings are filled with inappropriate comments and false information, it has only served to create greater conflict and unease in society,” Chang said. “We do not have any expectations or hopes for what the commission will be able to achieve as it moves into substantial discussion.”
Union deputy secretary-general Luo De-shui (羅德水) accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of failing to present and defend a framework for pension reform, including moving to swiftly target pension “fat cats,” while promising to exempt relatively poor pensioners from benefit cuts.
“The DPP has created a situation in which we are forced into an arduous and thankless role and end up being doubted by our members,” he said, adding that his organization’s efforts to promote moderate reform had caused it to be “smeared” by competing unions.
His union — which did not support the massive protest against pension reform by former government employees in Taipei on Saturday last week — has attracted criticism from the National Federation of Education Unions, which has accused it of “selling out” teachers’ interests for advocating that retirees be required to catch up on some pension fund payments to help restore fund solvency.
The teachers’ group maintains that years of overly low contribution rates are a key reason the fund is facing bankruptcy and merit some “make-up” payments, while the education group maintains that government pension promises carry legal weight that should exempt current and retired teachers from ex post facto changes.
Lo said that his union would continue to participate in local “expanded meetings” and the National Affairs Conference on pension reform.
National Federation of Education Unions deputy president Peng Ju-yu (彭如玉) expressed “deep regret,” accusing the teachers’ group of “giving up halfway.”
Her organization would “fight to the end,” Peng said.
“Even if the process of finding consensus is extremely difficult, that is what a democratic society is all about,” she said, accusing the teachers’ group of withdrawing to avoid attracting criticism.
Taiwan Higher Education Union director Liou You-syue (劉侑學), who represents the group at commission meetings, said that while some commission discussions had proved inefficient and were affected by personal attacks, his organization would continue to participate to ensure representation in the commission’s final compilation of member views.
“My guess is that the commission will wrap up within a month,” he said. “Getting our views in [the final commission report] will give us a prominence that would be impossible if we just held news conferences or met privately with legislators.”

Ministry raises student salaries

Ministry raises student salaries

By Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter
The Ministry of Education said it has raised the monthly salary paid to college students doing part-time jobs at designated non-profit organizations by NT$2,550.
The salaries paid to students working part-time at 273 organizations, including social welfare and environmental protection organizations, have been raised from NT$20,100 to NT$22,650, Youth Development Administration Director-General Lo Ching-shui (羅清水) said.
Students who work at the organizations next summer will earn NT$33,975 during a 45-day program initiated by the ministry to offer college students part-time job opportunities, with the ministry paying for the wages, Lo said.
Students who participated in the program were paid the minimum wage, which prompted some people to accuse the government of pushing down wages, Lo said.
Low salaries is a high-profile social issue that the ministry hopes to take the lead in ameliorating, he added.
About 500 students worked part-time at the organizations designated by the ministry last summer, and the ministry hopes to increase the number of job opportunities to 600 next year, he said.
The ministry is considering paying wages to student interns working at government agencies at all levels next year, he said.
College students can sign up for internship programs at central government agencies in three stages each lasting two months, he said, adding that 376 students have participated in the program so far this year.
The ministry will confer with central government agencies regarding the work shifts to be taken by students and with local government agencies on the wages they can offer, he said.
The ministry has yet to decide whether to pay students who participate in internship programs as a course requirement, he said.

CIVIL PENSIONS: Private-school teachers protest pensions

CIVIL PENSIONS: Private-school teachers protest pensions

DEFENSIVE:After the rally was declared illegal, protesters entered the Ministry of Education compound, prompting police officers to form a phalanx with their shields

By Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Private-school teachers yesterday protest outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei against what they say is an unfair pension system.

Photo: CNA

A group of private-school teachers yesterday staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Education to call for the establishment of a fair pension system so that the entitlements of public and private-school teachers are in balance.
Shouting slogans, about 40 protesters demanded that the government create a unified pension distribution mechanism for public and private-school teachers, that the income replacement ratio for private-school teachers be raised, and that private-school teachers be put on the Presidential Office’s pension reform committee.
Chien Tien-chih (簡添枝), a retired teacher who worked at Tun Hsu Vocational High School in Taipei, said that private-school teachers’ pensions are listed under the Public Servants and Teachers Insurance system, but there is a huge difference in the pensions received by them and public-school teachers.
All teachers are required to pay from NT$1.5 million to NT$1.7 million (US$47,314 to US$53,623) in premiums and retirement payments, which they are able to reclaim in their retirement, he said.
However, public-school teachers receive an average pension of NT$68,000 per month, while private-school teachers receive only about NT$18,000 per month.
This shows that income replacement rates enjoyed by teachers at public schools and those at private schools are disproportionate — about 80 percent and 20 percent respectively.
Chien said that public-school teachers are paid pensions from the first month of their retirement, while private-school teachers sometimes have to wait up to six months before they can receive their monthly pensions in full.
This is because pensions issued to private-school teachers are managed by three different institutions — school administrators, local education authorities and the Ministry of Civil Service — while pensions paid to public-school teachers are handled by the ministry alone, he said.
He called for the appointment of a single agency dedicated to handling pensions for private-school teachers.
Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology teacher Chen Tzu-chi (陳自治) said that private-school teachers are a minority group in the pension system.
Chen called on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to show sympathy for private-school teachers by granting their appeals.
He said the pension that private-school teachers receive is not enough to make ends meet, which is an “insult” to them.
De Lin Institute of Technology teacher Chen Chi-liu (諶其騮) when asked why there was such a discrepancy in the turnout of teachers for and against pension reforms yesterday, said that higher pensions for private-school teachers mean their employers have to allocate more money for their premiums.
Consequently, many private-school teachers are afraid to take part in protests over the fear that their employers might subsequently deny them promotion, which would hurt their pension quotas, he said.
About five minutes into the protest, police officers pronounced the protest illegal and asked the protesters to leave the site, saying that rally leaders had not requested the right to use the roads prior to the event.
The announcement sparked the ire of several demonstrators, who then led other protesters into the ministry compound, where they chanted slogans and asked Deputy Minister of Education Chen Der-hwa (陳德華) to come out and accept their petition