Showing their skills: Two new JET Pgrogramme participants show off the talents that got them their new jobs. |
Tokyo - Monbusho and CLAIR issued a joint statement last week admitting that the English teacher shortage has reached a "crisis level." The last five years have seen a severe decline in the number of qualified applicants both in the government's JET Programme, and in independent English schools. A snowballing demand for English-language education has placed a premium on native speakers, forcing most employers to significantly lower their acceptance standards.
"We used to get the best of the best, and even then we used to throw out half of them just by playing janken with our secretaries," said a senior CLAIRE official, speaking on condition of 12 glasses of sake.
Another member of his staff agreed that the glory days were over. "We shipped over our first batch of JETs in the cargo hold of a shrimp trawler at their expense and wrote it off as a 'cultural experience.' A boatload of teachers with MBA degrees and they bought it! Now they want airplanes, vacation days, apartments with heat, health care--it's like they're normal people," he said.
CLAIR's representatives abroad expressed similar concern about the decline in applicant quality. A publicity expert at the Japanese embassy in Chicago called the move to recruit among undergraduates "the beginning of the end." But is seems that supply and demand are the prime movers in the selection process. "The fact is, we need more people. We're working on changing our image a bit on university and college campuses. We're downplaying the salary and relative freedom, and we're trying to put a little more emphasis on the usurious cost of living, the clothes that never fit, and the total lack of good dope. We've also added articles to our brochure about how Japanese men are afraid to date foreign women. I think that will help."
Though there are many theories about why it has become harder to lure qualified teachers to Japan, Monbusho is keeping it's initial response simple and direct. "Our time as JET Programme was listening but not before. And so. In all and any given direction to tread lightly can see everyone," said the chairman of the Committee for English Education, Bird Watching, and Frozen Vegetables.
