April 14th, 2008
SOS: We need competent supervisors
Dear NETs,
Our Supervisor, Mr. Matsumoto's letter is akin to the infamous Marie Antoinette mis-quote, "Let them eat cake." For me, it sounds like, "Let good, experienced teachers help hire cheap, bad teachers." Maybe the board doesn't mean it this way, but to my ears, this letter says that the BOE has no respect for quality English education. I think they should not only apologize, but give us a contract they and we and they could be proud of. We deserve at least a 5-year contract and students at least deserve dedicated teachers.
Osaka Governor Hashimoto and the Osaka Board of Education are seriously out of touch with our needs and more importantly, our students' needs. Not only is the legality of the T-Net program in question, but the T in T-NET stands for TEMPORARY (I'm not making this up). They are not dedicated to the students who deserve qualified, well-paid teachers.
That said, OFSET is not against T-NETS. We are against using T-NETs to fill jobs that should go to full-time teachers. Up to eight years ago, there were 54 NETs. Now there are 34. The 20 T-NETs Mr. Matsumoto seeks used to be filled by full-time positions. OFSET's position is that the T-NET program can be a training ground for NET positions and that more NET positions should be on 5 year contracts. We are currently on a 4-month contract and losing good teachers like the people getting to the few lifeboats on the Titanic. This is no way to run public education.
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Dear Mr. Matsumoto,
Do you have any idea how insensitive and insulting your letter is?
Did you watch our news conference on channel 8 and channel 6 last Monday, April 7th?
How secure--how comfortable would you be in your job if you knew you had a contract--had a salary only until July 31st--less than 4 months from now? If your manager asked you to help find a low-cost alternative for your own job, what would you say? What would your family say?
Do you realize that many teachers like myself have been teaching in Japan for over ten years and we still receive the same salary? Do you realize many of us have advanced degrees in education? Do you realize many like me have families to support? Do you realize many of us have home mortgages to pay? Do you realize we have been negotiating with the Osaka Fu Board of Education for over 18 years and our jobs are getting less secure rather than more secure? You do not seem to be operating in good faith.
We are not puppets you can pull out of your briefcase and wave at students and magically create English ability. We want to work with you to make excellent English programs to give students the tools they need to become bilingual.
Do you realize that hiring low-skilled low-experienced T-NETs will not help you build a quality English program?
When will you take native English teachers seriously? When will we, with so much experience and ability be offered a longer 5-contract so that we can be secure in our jobs?
Have you read the Demands and Negotiate section? It's bilingual. After you read it, I hope you can get a better understanding of the excellent possibilities we can have for developing an excellent English program in Osaka. If you ignore the teachers you supervise and give responsibility to a dispatch company, you are undermining rather than helping English education in Osaka.
After our press conference and our letter to Governor Hashimoto, the Governor has not replied, he has ignored us. I hope you answer this letter. We will see you in official negotiations in July.
Sincerely,
Steven Thompson
OFSET General Secretary
OFSETUnion.org
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<MatsumotoRi@mbox.pref.osaka.lg.jp> wrote:
Hello. I am Ryo Matsumoto, supervisor at the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education.
The Osaka Prefectural BOE now needs 15 to 20 T-NETs (Temporary Native English Teachers) urgently.
If your friends or acquaintances are now seeking a job of teaching English at senior high schools in Osaka, I'd like you to tell them about this.
1. The contract is the one with ECC Best Career and they will send them to Osaka Prefectural High Schools as assistant English teachers.
2. The period of the contract at the beginning of 2008 fiscal year is for 2 months from mid-May to mid-July, but there is the possibility ECC will continue to employ them after July.
3. T-NETs work 3 - 5 days a week and their working hours is for 6 hours a day. So even if your friends or acquaitances can work only three or four days a week, please tell them to try to call ECC and ask if they can get a job.
4. This is not the NET position directly with the Osaka-fu BOE and they will have to take a job interview with ECC.
If your friends or acquaintances get interested in this position, please contact Mr. James Suzuki directly who is in charge of T-NETs at ECC Best Career, and ask the details.
(Tel : 06-6636-0809 / E-mail : jsuzuki@ecc.co.jp)
My thanks for your time.
I'm looking forward to your help.
Sincerely,
Ryo Matsumoto
Supervisor, the Osaka-fu BOE
Tel�� 06-6944-6887
Fax��06-6944-6887
E-mail��MatsumotoRi@mbox.pref.osaka.lg.jp