The ALT Job's Current Reality Part 2

In June 2022, I told you about The ALT Job’s Past and Present Part 1,  a summary of the origins of the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) job position, the realities that led to the coining of the frequently used acronym ESID, Every Situation is Different, to indicate the inconsistency of the duties and compensation that ALTs experience.

Know what you're in for as an ALT, photo Pixabay

Looking back at the Original Pattern

The impetus for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in the 1980s was primarily to build goodwill between the US and Japan during rising trade tensions while also improving English language education. One precaution Japan took to not alienate Japanese English teachers was inviting 英語指導助手 eigo shido joshu, English teaching assistants, not qualified teachers. The Ministry of Education adopted a model of team teaching in which the assistants and licensed Japanese teachers were expected to cooperate to plan and instruct English lessons.

In 2003, MEXT implemented The Action Plan to Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities”, asking ALTs and Japanese teachers to provide communication activities.

Enter the Dispatch Companies

Prior to 1999, ALTs were almost exclusively limited to three years of employment with the JET Program. Upon leaving, they were expected to leave and share their Japan-side experiences in their home countries. It was hoped they would maintain ties with their host communities and contribute to economic ties.

The game changed in 1999 when for the first time, Japan’s dispatch employment law allowed companies to hire from abroad without the constraints of the JET Program. The number of dispatched ALTs rose to 50% of the total employed in Japan’s schools in 2009.

Problems with dispatch company employment became apparent that year when in many situations, ALTs were employed on 業務委託, gyomu itaku contracts, making them essentially independent contractors.

This ran afoul of the MEXT’s mandate for team teaching (ALTs and JTEs working in tandem) and the labor law that states that gyomu itaku contractors take instruction only from the company and not the client schools’ staff. MEXT sent out notices to Boards of Education urging them to direct hire or use only dispatch companies that employ ALTs on 派遣 haken, dispatch contracts.

While JET Program placements peaked at over 6000 participants in 2001 and fell in the mid-2000s, the number of ALTs increased again in 2019 to over 5000. The remainder of the 20,000 or so ALTs in Japanese schools are directly hired by school boards or dispatched.

Dispatch companies can eat anything from 20-50% of the budget that boards of education set for their ALTs. If ALTs want to know how much their municipal government allots for their employment, they can ask at the 情報公開窓口, joho kokai madoguchi, public information desk, for a copy of the dispatch contract.

Chris Flynn put it succinctly in his 2009 article in JALT’s publication, The Language Teacher;

“ALTs are the only teaching staff subjected to a tendering process—just like the desks and chairs that are procured by the BOE.”

Because of the continuing tendering process where the lowest bid wins, ALT salaries continue to shrink. You’ll see dispatch companies on job websites offering ￥250,000 a month or less. The low salaries don’t attract or help retain committed, skilled people, and contribute to the high turnover rate.

Compound all the issues with the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare’s enactment of 同一労働同一賃金, douitsu rodou doitsu chingin, equal work equal pay in the last few years, and the dispatch companies’ scramble for self-preservation and we end up with even lower wages in some situations.

Room For Improvement

The General Union which represents ALT dispatch employees among others has a campaign to survey ALTs about their working conditions and aims to fight for better terms. . They expect the road to be a long one.

For those ALTs who have Japanese language skills, teaching experience, initiative, and mobility, one way to escape from the dispatch ALT issues is to learn how to get a direct-hire ALT position. These ALTs might benefit from ‘leveling up’ to make themselves more attractive to direct hire positions.