OSAKA -- The English-language conversation industry is in urgent need of reform and, unlike other sectors of the economy, needs more regulation, not less.
That was the opinion of people participating in the "Real Jobs Symposium," which recently brought together nearly 40 English-language instructors and members of the General Union in Osaka that represents them. "Since the bankruptcies in the early 1990s of ATTY and Bilingual, the situation in the industry has gotten worse," said union member Simon Cole. "Teachers are being made to teach more hours, while students are finding that their class options are less flexible."
Cole said the union is working to protect labor rights, to oppose one-year contracts that give companies the right to terminate employees and to increase preparation time for teachers. "Many schools don't want to train teachers or give them adequate preparation time for classes because they have their own instruction methods known as 'idiot-proof' teaching, whereby any warm body can do the job as long as the method is followed," Cole said.