Let's Japan.org Debunking Eikaiwa and Ramblings in Japan

It doesn't look like the lawsuit will end any time soon:

The current focus of negotiations is the amount of notice union members should give the company ahead of industrial action. Initially, Berlitz Japan offered to drop their lawsuit if teachers gave a week's notice before striking. Begunto proposed five minutes. Since teachers typically only learn the next day's schedule the night before, the judge instructed the company to come up with a better offer.

Asked how much notice unions legally have to give before striking, Langley replied, "None. Zero. That's one of the beauties of a strike: You just strike."

In the latest round of talks held Thursday, Berlitz Japan requested contract teachers give strike notification by 3 p.m. the day before, and per-lesson teachers by 5 p.m. Begunto pointed out to the judge that per-lesson teachers don't receive their schedule until 6 p.m. the day before. Union executives have taken the offer back to members for consideration

That's quite the chutzpah from Berlitz. I don't know why they want advance notice of industrial reaction when it hasn't stopped them from screwing over their teachers:

One, who didn't want to be named, received word of his dismissal just before shipping out to Afghanistan as a U.S. Army reservist at the end of July 2009. Berlitz Japan had allowed the teacher to take unpaid leave for military duty several times before the strike. But after being the only teacher at his Yokohama branch to walk out, he began getting complaints from students.

According to Begunto members, after being ordered to deploy to Afghanistan, Berlitz Japan told the teacher he could take a leave of absence of less than a year, and that he'd have to quit if he needed more than a year. Two days before he left for Afghanistan the company fired him. According to the dismissal letter, his performance was subpar and was hurting the company's image.

Take unpaid leave and then get summarily fired anyway for reasons which you cannot defend since you are conveniently unable to communicate with the company. The same thing applies if you become seriously ill:

Another of the teachers named in the suit, Catherine Campbell, was fired earlier this month after taking too long to recover from late-stage breast cancer cancer [sic]. In June 2009, Campbell took a year of unpaid leave to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Because Berlitz Japan failed to enroll Campbell in the shakai hoken health insurance scheme, she was unable to receive the two-thirds wage coverage it provides and had to live with her parents in Canada during treatment. The company denied Campbell's request to extend her leave from June to Sept. 2010 and fired her for failing to return to work.

Berlitz Japan work rules allow for leave-of-absence extensions where the company deems it necessary.

Never mind that this is unpaid leave, it's Catherine's fault for not healing faster. Her situation is also a good example of why it's important to pay into a health insurance scheme. She would not have been financially crippled had she been enrolled in the company's shakai hoken health insurance plan. Insurance is always a waste of money until you need it, eh?

As the article points out, the heart of the dispute is a battle for a wage increase. The teachers went on strike for a 4.6% increase after going without a raise for 16 years while Berlitz and its parent company, Benesse, enjoyed record profits.

One of the reasons why conditions are so bad in eikaiwa is because the schools have been allowed to get away with their shady practices and abuse for so long. Part of it has to do with the lack of regulation of the industry, but another reason is that few teachers have chosen to stand up to their employers. It's always been easier to jump ship and find something better. But with Japan's moribund economy, those days are over. There are few good options left for teachers: 1) Don't teach English in Japan (don't bother with it in the first place) or 2) Don't be a pushover in the first place.

As I've said before, this is worth fighting for. You can't let yourself be pushed around. The alternative is to let eikaiwa schools forever stomp on you.

In other news, Louis Carlet is the executive president of Zenkoku Ippan (Tozen):

On Dec. 3, 2008, Berlitz Japan claimed the strike was illegal and sued for a total of ¥110 million in damages. Named in the suit were the five teachers volunteering as Begunto executives, as well as two union officials: the president of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, Yujiro Hiraga , and Carlet, former NUGW case officer for Begunto and currently executive president of Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen).

Hoofin' has the details on how that happened.

UPDATE: The author of the article, James McCrostie, was kind enough to email me and offer a few extra morsels that didn't make the editor's cut:

• To add insult to Catherine Campbell's fight with cancer, Benesse supports the Pink Ribbon campaign through their health insurance union （ベネッセ健康保険組合） [PDF, see p.3].

• Union members told James McCrostie in an interview that the fight against Begunto really seems to be part of a wider policy of union busting at Benesse Corp. In April, Simul International fired the president of their union, someone with 12 years experience at the company. Also, Berlitz threw away 15 years of established practices for collective bargaining in English. Two lawyers from the law firm suing the Berlitz teachers now run Berlitz's side of negotiations in Japanese and demand the union provide an interpreter. During negotiations, Berlitz managers ask the lawyers for permission before they speak. The law firm in question is famous in Japanese legal circles for union busting.

Stay classy, Berlitz.

UPDATE 7/27: Something just didn't sit right with me after re-reading the article and it's the union's case with the Army Reservist. It's a weak case, especially when it looks like Berlitz was being reasonable in granting several unpaid leaves. Expecting to be able to take multiple unpaid leaves and still keep your job is a stretch in Japan. It's also difficult to see how the union could pin his dismissal on him being the only one in his school to strike. It seems like a moot point to argue when all Berlitz has to do is point out that the teacher has been away from work for extended periods of time.

Comedy gold!

Page launched an unfair dismissal claim against GEOS, which comes under the umbrella of the GEOS Corporation founded by Japanese businessman Tsuneo Kusunoki.

But the company responded by claiming that Page "accepted understanding of the 'Japanese way' of doing business". They went on to say he was used to Kusunoki "ranting", "berating" and "humiliating" people "so this was nothing new".

But the Employment Relations Authority said the company's failings were "fundamental and profound".

"Ranting," "berating," "humiliating," "nothing new." Man loses job because he didn't make enough money for the company, so GEOS counters with he was used to abusive behavior so that makes it OK. That's so pathetic it's laughable. One of the biggest failures of the large schools is their inability to properly educate, inform, and train their employees. Orientation generally consists of lots of don'ts--don't bother the manager, don't be late, don't cause trouble. Just show up and teach. Despite the instructors being the product the schools are selling, they are treated with contempt and expected to obey without question orders from head office. Instructors may be employees, but they are transient ones, whose only use to help line the pockets of the school they work for.

This dispute in New Zealand gets to the heart of the shake up in eikaiwa: the rot in management. There are two things that have characterized eikaiwa for a long time. One is the bicycle business model where the company must keep pedaling (collecting revenue) or else it will fall over. It worked for Nova and GEOS, but the moment that cash flow is interrupted, things go downhill very quickly. Then there are the autocratic owner/presidents. With Nozomu Sahashi, there was his plush penthouse-cum-office that would make Hugh Heffner jealous, plus his continued assertions that he did nothing wrong when he pilfered an employee. Kusunoki was more of the same, constantly demanding more and more from his staff and berating them for not meeting their monthly targets. When GEOS' Australia schools closed, he issued a half-assed apology that the closures there wouldn't affect operations in Japan. GEOS went bankrupt shortly after that announcement.

To use "the Japanese way" as an excuse just discredits eikaiwa even more. Dishonesty and bullying are the Japanese way? No wonder the major schools are in trouble. They can't fail fast enough. The major eikaiwas have never been about learning a language; they've always been about making money for their owners.

Tuesday's Lifeline column in The Japan Times featured a situation that illustrated just how fly-by-night teaching English in Japan can be:

Reader TS writes: "I return to the U.S. next week and I was supposed to receive my final pay check from a really bad ALT company . . . last week, but did not receive payment. I've called them but the secretaries say that the people in charge are not in the office. I called my direct contact and he has yet to call me back.

"I've read on the Internet that with your last pay check this company will try and avoid paying you since the pay date is so close to when you have to return to your home country, and that when you return they will try and avoid all contact with you. I'm going to keep calling them, but somehow I worry that it is futile."

The article goes on to explain the hoops you have to jump through to get paid: send a letter through registered mail and wait for a reply. If that doesn't work, the next step is to go to a Labor Standards Office and have them call your employer on your behalf. Barring that, you may then need to hire a lawyer.

One crucial piece of information missing from the article is the name of the "really bad ALT company." While knowing what your options are when it comes to making sure you get paid is inportant, an ounce of prevention--knowing who the shyster schools are so you can avoid them--would save teachers a lot of grief. Fortunately, I'm told by a reader that the offending school is Japan Advanced Labour Staff Services (JALSS). You can read about them here and here.

Using the poor economy as an excuse to not pay staff is no excuse at all. The fact that non-payment appears to be common in eikaiwa should send teachers, prospective and veteran alike, running for the door. The moral of the story is this: If you quit your job, don't make any plans to immediately return home if you want to see your final paycheck.

Whoever wrote The ALT Scam on the Fukuoka General Union blog is probably feeling vindicated right now. The Mainichi Daily News reports:

Public schools here [Kashiwa, Chiba] have been unable to start their native speaker-taught English classes this school year after the city's board of education was accused of violating labor laws with foreign language teachers.

According to the Kashiwa Municipal Board of Education, it has been instructed by the local labor office to change its labor relationship with foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) in the city's elementary and junior high schools after it engaged in illegal employment practices.

The local education board entrusted part of its English curriculum for primary and secondary school students to a Tokyo-based staffing agency between 2007 and 2009, and a total of 23 foreign teachers belonging to the agency worked as ALTs at 61 local public elementary and junior high schools during this period. Their contracts expired at the end of last month.

The article goes on to say that instructors were working as temporary employees under the guise of subcontractors, and demanding that their contracts be extended. When they complained to the labour board, the board investigated and found that the instructors were under the direct supervision of the schools they worked at even though they were working under dispatch contracts. The problem with this kind of arrangement is that:

Under the current law, companies and other business operators must offer a direct contract to their temporary workers after they have completed the first three years of work. Moreover, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's labor guidelines require a minimum three-month interval before the two parties enter into another temporary contract.

The city's board of education had planned to terminate its English class teacher outsourcing contract and employ temporary English teachers directly starting this April. However, as the labor office judged that the education board had already forced its contracted foreign teachers to work as normal temporary staff, it became impossible for the city to renew the contracts right away, in accordance with the ministry guidelines prohibiting consecutive temporary contracts of over three years.

The BOE has announced that it will comply with the labour board's order, although English classes have been suspended until July. This is a good first step in breaking what I called "the terrible triangle" in ALT teaching jobs. The complaints to labour boards are having an effect.

An LJ reader sent me this letter from his insurance company regarding the new immigration guideline which appears to confirm that the stance on the guideline has been softened. As the letter points out, not being enrolled in a public health plan is insufficient grounds for declining a visa renewal application. It looks like a lot of instructors can breathe a sigh of relief.

Update 11/28: Hoofin makes some salient points on this issue. The focus on Guideline 8 is misplaced in that it doesn't supersede the fact that the law still compels you or your employer to enroll in a national health plan while you are working in Japan. Instead of faxes from Diet members and comments from the Immigration Bureau, we should be seeking answers from the Health Ministry and Social Insurance Agency who have authority over this matter.

Update 12/7: Dmca.com has contacted Let's Japan and informed me that their client requested that this URL be taken down since I posted private and confidential correspondence intended for their client only. On that note, I've removed the letter from this post.

As you are aware, immigration guidelines are set to be changed next April so that you will have to show proof of enrollment in shakai hoken or kokumin kenko hoken when you apply to renew your visa. This is a huge issue for eikaiwa instructors as most are not enrolled in either health plan and are faced with the possibility of having to make hefty back payments upon enrollment.

This change might be on hold, though. According to Ronald Kessler, head of the Free Choice Foundation, which is campaigning for foreigners to be able to opt out of Japan's national health plans and buy their own private coverage, the revisions to the immigration guideline may be scrapped.

The Free Choice Foundation has just received word that an unpopular Immigration guideline is to be repealed.

The news was relayed via a phone call from the office of an Upper House lawmaker* immediately after he had spoken with the Justice Ministry regarding Immigration Guideline No. 8, the mandate that would have required visa applicants to present their social insurance ID cards at the application window. The lawmaker was informed that due to the large number of complaints registered - as well as the communiqué received from the Kobe City Assembly - the Ministry will be deleting (sakujo) Guideline No. 8 from the list of eight guidelines.

Kessler says that the Justice Ministry was overwhelmed by the resistance to the changes and decided to delete the guideline for the time being. No doubt a lot of instructors are going to be very relieved to hear this news.

(h/t ripslyme in the forums)

The latest development in the dirty undertaking of dispatch teaching:

A labor union of foreign workers requested Monday that the Aichi prefectural board of education address the concerns of English-language instructors at public schools who they say are working under illegal contracts.

The General Union, based in the city of Osaka, said an investigation it conducted last month and communications with municipal boards of education show that foreign teaching assistants in 16 school districts in the prefecture are contracted by private language schools or other agents rather than the school boards themselves.

The union charges that by going through agencies, the school boards are "avoiding the obligation of hiring them directly that comes after a certain period of (temporary) employment has elapsed."

It's all slowly coming to a head. Nothing illustrates the situation better than this 2005 letter from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) acknowledging that gyomu itaku (outsourcing contracts) are illegal.

This notice was sent to all prefectural BOEs, and advises that they give preference to JETs, direct hires, and legal dispatch jobs over gyomu itaku with private dispatch companies. It also recommends that skilled ALTs be made permanent employees （正社員）.

Paragraph 3 in the appendix also contains some noteworthy items. It notes that dispatch contracts can only be made with ministry-approved dispatch companies and that BOEs should make sure they are dealing with approved companies before entering into a contract. It also notes that dispatch contracts are valid for 3 years whereupon the ALT must be made a permanent employee.

This letter is the kind of thing that should lay the foundation for ALT positions to be decent jobs, but instead, what we have is a terrible triangle.

BOEs: Lazy and cheap. They want ALTs in classrooms but don't want any of the hassles that come with having to manage foreigners. They know that dispatch companies can be unscrupulous but use them anyway. They like the steady supply of cheap instructors but aren't smart enough to figure out why the teacher turnover is so high.

MEXT: The letter shows that they are aware of illegal hiring practices, but they aren't doing anything beyond issuing guidance. This particular letter was written in 2005, and clearly nothing has been done in the past 4 years. Recall the fate of Samantha, covered by NHK in 2007. Fast forward to the present, and we still have the same abuses happening to ALTs like Robert and Eric.

ALTs: For some unknown reason, despite the information one can find on the internet about dispatch companies and teaching in Japan, teachers still insist on being taken advantage of by their employers. They work for low pay and no benefits because they'd rather not give up on their dream/fantasy/plan of living in Japan.

Where is the breaking point? There is absolutely no justification to put up with such terrible working conditions. At what point does the whole mess collapse under the weight of its own bullshit? Who takes the first step in breaking the triangle? Do the BOEs smarten up? Does MEXT do something beyond issuing memos? Do ALTs quit in droves or strike for better working conditions?

A quick blurb in the newspaper, the Mainichi reports that the three men arrested on suspicion of confining Sahashi in his hotel room have been released.

Apparently the police don't have much of a case on them. At any rate, the thugs caught with Sahashi are probably thinking, "Mission accomplished." They delivered their message.

Mainichi article

ＮＯＶＡ元社長事件：監禁容疑で逮捕の３人釈放　東京地検　

東京地検は１９日、経営破綻（はたん）した英会話学校最大手「ＮＯＶＡ」（破産手続き中）元社長、猿橋望被告（５８）＝業務上横領罪で実刑判決、控訴中＝の監禁容疑で逮捕された指定暴力団山口組系組員（３８）ら３人を、処分保留で釈放した。

警視庁は、９月２８日に東京都中央区のホテル一室で猿橋被告を監禁したとして３人を逮捕した。捜査関係者によると、組員らは警視庁の調べに「一緒にいただけ」などと容疑を否認。猿橋被告もホテル内から外部に電話で連絡を取っていたといい、地検はホテルでのやりとりについて捜査を継続する。

毎日新聞　2009年10月19日　20時42分

The Japan Times ran a couple of articles last week on the coming changes in health insurance for foreigners in Japan.

As you are probably already aware, starting next April, you will have to show proof of enrollment in shakai hoken (SH) or kokumin kenko hoken (KKH) when you apply to renew your visa. Jenny Uechi reminds us of the law:

If you are working for a company in Japan, chances are that you are (or need to be) enrolled in shakai hoken, in which you pay half of your health insurance premiums and your company pays the rest. There isn't much ambiguity about shakai hoken: If a company employs more than five people, and an employee is working more than 20 hours a week for a period longer than 2 months, the company is obligated to submit paperwork for an employee's health insurance and pension to the Social Insurance Agency within five days of hiring. With shakai hoken comes the kosei nenkin, or pension plan; the two are a set, and enrollment is mandatory whether you plan to retire in Japan or not.

Meanwhile, people who are unemployed, self-employed, employed by a small firm or retired should be enrolled in kokumin kenko hoken (national health insurance). People paying into this system have to sign up on their own for kokumin nenkin (the national pension) at their city ward office.

Unfortunately a lot of English instructors are unaware of the law and find themselves in a position like "Patrick Johnson:"

Patrick Johnson (not his real name), an assistant language teacher, has recently had to fork out over ¥700,000 in back payments for the last two years he has been living in Japan without national health insurance. He has just paid his final monthly installment of ¥75,000, he explains with a tired sigh of relief. He used to pay for private insurance, but has left the scheme now he is covered by kokumin kenko hoken.

Johnson, who works for a large corporation with far more than five employees, is well aware that he should technically be enrolled in shakai hoken, where his company pays 50 percent of his premiums. But because his contract states that he only works 29.5 hours — well over the 20-hour limit but .5 of an hour below the limit that usually triggers a government crackdown — the company can instead oblige him to sign up for the other option, where he has to bear 100 percent of the cost.

"You know how the system works," he says wearily, as though hour-fudging is a given in Japan's language-teaching industry.

Johnson reflects on his experience with more resignation than rage. Last year, he says, the city started sending letters asking him to pay health insurance. Since he already had private coverage through his company, he did not think much of it, but started panicking when the city approached his company asking for his bank information. Then one day it happened — he saw ¥50,000 had vanished from his bank account

His experience is typical of most instructors. They are generally unaware that their employers should be enrolling them in an insurance scheme and are surprised to learn that they owe up to two years in back payments when they finally do get properly enrolled. This is also one of the reasons why many would like to avoid SH or KKH--they are expensive.

Which brings me to Ronald Kessler's Zeit Gist column in which he argues that foreigners in Japan have special healthcare needs and that for vital reasons of communication, level of service, and repatriation of remains, foreigners should be able to presumably opt out of SH or KKH and choose their own plans.

There are a few problems with Mr. Kessler's argument, however. First, enrollment in SH and KKH is mandated by law, and, lke taxes, you can't choose to not pay. He also forgets to mention that if foreigners do need extra coverage, they can get it from one of Japan's private insurance companies. This is in fact what many Japanese do to cover the gap between SH or KKH should they be hospitalized for an extended period of time. Moreover, he fails to provide any specifics as to what other health insurance plans make them preferable to Japan's public ones. What are the cheaper and more comprehensive health insurance plans? Are they universally accepted across Japan?

One point I agree with him on is that it is curious that Immigration, not the Social Insurance Agency, will effectively be enforcing enrollment. This shifts the burden of enrollment on the instructors, not their employers.

If the government wants to enforce enrollment in this odd manner, then that's there prerogative. Personally, I don't see this an issue of choice insomuch as it is a labour issue. As has been mentioned on LJ before, employers play fast and loose with working hours, drawing up 29.5 hour work weeks so they can avoid having to enroll their instructors in a health plan even if their instructors are physically at school on a full-time basis.

Instead of putting the burden on instructors to enroll, the Social Insurance Agency should be cracking down on the schools who shirk their legal obligations.

One thing is for sure, there will be more than a few instructors who are hit for back payments when they are ultimately forced to enroll. There may even be a few who are unable to renew their visas.

It's time for instructors to be prepared. If your visa is up for renewal next spring, make sure you have some money set aside in case you are have to make back payments. While costly, you can negotiate with local governments and set up a payment schedule that fits your budget or even get your payments reduced.

It's also time to start making some noise about your working conditions. Even "Patrick Johnson" knew his employer was gaming the system yet he turned a blind eye. Don't let your employer rob you of your right to healthcare in Japan. For all its warts and deficiencies, SH and KKH cover you, no questions asked. The choice involved here is not which plan is better for foreigners in Japan, but choosing to stand up to your employer and demanding your right to healthcare coverage.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, via Yahoo!, has a story about the dark underbelly of ALT dispatch companies as English will become a compulsory subject in the fifth and sixth grades in 2011.

For example, schools have to deal with the constant turnover of ALTs. One BOE member in Saitama related that he is on his 4th ALT quit since April. This revolving door of teachers is not conducive to learning.

A contributing factor to the revolving door are the dispatch companies themselves. The low salaries ALTs receive guarantees they won't be around for very long. A principle in Saitama noted that the dispatch company that won the contract for his school placed a bid that was ¥310,000 per ALT lower than the bids last year.

Figures from the education ministry show that 25% schools use the JETs while the remainder rely on dispatch companies. The principal in Saitama adds that his city has a contract with a dispatch company to provide approximately 20 ALTs to more than 40 elementary, junior, and senior high schools, and knows that the company has cut the salaries, bonuses, or in some cases both, of ALTs who missed half a day due to illness. He says that he will no longer be able to provide quality education if the number of unscrupulous dispatch companies increases.

The increase in dispatch companies took a noticeable leap in 2006 when it was announced that English would be a compulsory subject in elementary schools. But this was when ALTs in the JET Programme were directly hired. An increasing number of school boards now don't want to be bothered with having to hire, house, or find replacement ALTs, which is why they find dispatch companies so appealing.

The problems described in the Yomiuri article are further illustrated in a news special on ALTs. Like their Japanese counterparts, contract teachers have zero job security. Part 1 starts with Lara, who came to Japan to study pottery. She's teaching twice a week, and lucky for her, she is directly employed by her BOE. She is one of the lucky ALTs. She loves her job and the kids like her lessons. Then there are the less fortunate ALTs like Robert, who was summarily fired from his job 5 months before his contract expired. His lunch consists of bean sprouts and a small cut of salmon. He has to pinch his pennies because he hasn't found another job. When he tried to get an answer from his dispatch company as to why he was dismissed, they told him that the BOE wanted a change in ALTs. To illustrate how bad the conditions are, the news program asked a room of parents and students if their ALT had ever changed during a year. They answered, "Yes," with one boy saying he had 7 or 8 different teachers.

In part 2, we're treated to more problems. Eric has no savings and made only ¥112,000 in December and ¥150,000 in January. Although he's been working for 3 years, he's been on 6-month renewal contracts. He hasn't been paying into shakai hoken because his dispatch company told him that since he teaches fewer than 6 hours a day, they can't enroll him. His contract, however, shows that he works 8 hours a day.

His contract with the dispatch company is illegal. The problem is that while the schools are supposed to go through the dispatch company when giving orders or instructions to an ALT, this doesn't happen simply because the ALT is in the school and its easier to give instructions directly. Under the law, the schools should be directly employing ALTs.

A survey done by the news program shows that of the 62 cities they surveyed, 51 BOEs had contracts with dispatch companies. If the education ministry understands that these kinds of contract arrangements are illegal, why are ALTs working under them? The answer comes down to money. The BOEs don't have any, so they look for the cheapest dispatch company. The education ministry, however, appears to have no idea as to how many ALTs are working under this conditions, but plans to investigate.

Comment: The school boards want English to be cheap, fast, and, good but don't realize that they can only pick two of these options in real life. If BOE's want continuity and good lessons, they're going to have to pay for it, but they don't appear to have the budget for this.

The article and the news report illustrate how utterly broken English education is in public schools. Fixing this problem should be straightforward but the BOEs have no money and the education ministry is dragging its feet even though it's aware ALTs are working under illegal contracts.

With NOVA gone, I think it's fair to say that ALT dispatch companies can lay claim to being the worst in the business. They are truly bottom of the barrel.

(video via the General Union)

Update: A subtitled version of the report can be found at Japan Probe.

Yomiuri article

小学英語、外国人の指導助手巡る問題山積

7月28日14時54分配信 読売新聞

２０１１年度から必修化される小学５、６年生の英語の授業について、文部科学省が全国の公立小学校約２万１０００校などを対象に調査を実施したところ、昨年度に小学校で実施された英語授業のうち７割近くで外国語指導助手（ＡＬＴ）が活用されていたことがわかった。

　生の英語を学ぶ機会が定着してきたことが浮き彫りになった形だが、一方では、簡単に授業を投げ出してしまうＡＬＴもいるなど、“質”の問題が浮かび上がっている。

「また辞めるのか」。７月中旬、埼玉県内の市教育委員会の担当者は、業者から米国人ＡＬＴが交代するとの電話連絡を受け、頭を抱えた。４月以降、辞めるのは３人目。１人目は「通勤時間が長い」と小学校に現れず、２人目と３人目は「一身上の都合」などを理由に、１学期の授業だけで、学校から消えた。２学期からは４人目が来る。担当者は「継続性が大事なのにこんなに交代するなんて。児童たちにも説明ができない」と困惑する。

　「人件費を切りつめるから辞めてしまうんだろう」と、埼玉県内のある学校長はうち明ける。この学校のＡＬＴ派遣を請け負った業者は、入札で、昨年の業者に比べてＡＬＴ１人あたり３１万円も安く落札した。

文部科学省によると、ＡＬＴを活用した小学校の授業のうち、国が仲介する「ＪＥＴプログラム」によるものが２５％で、残りは民間業者への委託など。

この市の場合、４０余りの小中学校にＡＬＴ約２０人を派遣する民間業者と契約を結んだが、校長は「風邪で半日休み、給与とボーナスを両方カットされたＡＬＴもいた。なりふり構わぬ業者が増えれば、教育の質は保てなくなる」と危機感を募らせた。

関係者によると、業者の新規参入が目立つようになったのは、小学校英語の必修化が打ち出された０６年ごろから。かつてはＪＥＴプログラムで採用したＡＬＴを自治体が直接雇用するのが主流だった。

しかし、自治体側はＡＬＴが住むアパートを契約したり、交代要員を確保したりしなければならない。民間業者に委託すれば、こうした手続きは不要になるため、業者を活用する自治体が徐々に増えてきた。