Page 7 - ELG2109 Sep Issue 477

NEWS

Filipino teachers feel impact of China’s new rules

By Melanie Butler years of the company’s operations
Filipino teachers have been among in the Philippines with the
the worst hit by China’s crackdown promise of thousands more jobs to
on online English Language classes, add to the 30,000 teachers already PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK
part of wide-ranging reforms of working for them.
China’s after-school education Initially. Covid provided a boost
industry which has introduced to the online tutoring industry in
bans on profit-making companies China, with 51Talk, part of the
operating in the market for China Online Education Group,
6-15-year-olds, restrictions on seeing 23% year-on-year growth
the number of hours students in the first quarter of this year.
can be taught and, most recently, Further, the online boom provided
the announcement that teachers a boon for the teachers who were
working online with Chinese laid off when the country’s private
children must be resident in China. language schools were forced
“Filipino teachers have been
among the largest providers of Initially Covid collapsed. We were getting 70-plus so-called online Filipino English
online English teaching services flights a week from Korea full of language teachers have lost their
in China since 2010,” according proved a boost to Koreans coming to ESL schools. jobs,” says our source.
to Sixth Tone, an English medium the online tutoring Now they have all long gone and Students had been choosing
news website owned by a state- the pandemic rages on here.” Filipino teachers because they were
controlled media company. Early industry in China At the moment, the online both affordable and professional.
pioneers of the use of online industry is also on its knees, with English is one of the official
teachers were 51Talk and ALO7, to close, many permanently, when the market value of the China languages of the Philippines, and
which set up their first overseas the pandemic hit inbound tourism. Online Education Group down Filipino English teachers possess
operations in Manila. One source in the Philippines 88% in the past 12 months. the same professional TEFL
In April last year, the founder of told the Gazette that the local “Now China has pulled the plug qualifications as their American
51Talk, Jack Huang, celebrated 10 language travel market has “totally on online English, thousands of counterparts.

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