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SIGDAY
Special Interest Group
School Management SIG
A8
What schools should know about social
security
Jürg Lehmann
Roughly 10 school managers and freelancers
attended this workshop including Claire
Jackson, who had put in a great deal of work
on the ETAS Committee to enable the ETAS
BVG scheme to go forward. Robin kicked off
by reminding participants of the history of the
ETAS social security scheme set up with
Winterthur Insurance. The main point had
been to offer a solution to part-timers who
worked for two or three schools and did not
reach the BVG minimum of roughly CHF
19,000.- at either school, or only at one school
but not at others. Clearly these teachers
missed out on the benefits of the Second
Pillar and exposed themselves to serious
risks. Falling seriously ill was not a good
idea if there was no Second Pillar scheme
in place. Jürg answered a great number of
questions with his customary professionalism.
For instance, he pointed out that teachers
should beware of ‘pseudo self-employment’
implying that whoever worked for a school
was basically employed and that authorities
were not happy about ‘agreements’ which
relieved schools of the obligation to pay their
share of the BVG. The discussion showed
that the ETAS BVG solution offers considerable
advantages to freelancers and part-timers
who work for different schools. However,
some managers of larger schools employing
full-timers felt they would need to consider an
alternative to the ETAS BVG scheme which
offered more benefits to teachers who teach
all their hours for one school. Finally Jürg as
the representative of a large insurance was
reminded by participants that the percentage
teachers and schools had to pay for accidents
on and off the job was way too high and by no
means reflected the low occupational hazards
of the teaching industry. Jürg agreed and
held out the hope that the year 2008 would
see a revaluation of the UVG and how it was
calculated in the case of teachers. Good news
all along the line and many thanks, Jürg!
Robin Hull
28 ETAS Journal 24/3 Summer 2007
School Management SIG
B8
???Problem students – school’s
problems?
Elsbeth Mäder
Elsbeth Mäder started by distributing a
number of cards with scenarios to participants
who then started to think about possible
solutions. As usual, Elsbeth prepared carefully
and offered input informed by many years of
experience. The scenarios were so interesting
that the discussion was able to cover only
the first two or three and we all regretted that
a mere 60 minutes had been reserved for
this workshop. Some of the problems which
seemed to strike a chord with many school
managers were students who do not have
enough time to learn and do homework due
to work pressure, students in their mid-50s or
even early sixties who are pressurised by their
employers into taking tests (shortly before
they retire…), young learners who have been
told by their primary or secondary school
teachers that they lack the talent to learn
languages, students who are in too much of
a hurry to take examinations but are not yet
at the level, students who do not want to pay
for the three or four evenings they have not
attended, students who have a chemistry
problem with their teacher or their fellow students.
The main benefit of this workshop was
to hear how other school managers deal with
these issues. Everyone agreed that Elsbeth
should offer a follow-up workshop with the
same focus some time in 2008. Well done and
many thanks, Elsbeth!
Robin Hull
School Management SIG
C8
What is a qualified teacher? How to find
them? How to keep them?
Robin Hull
The presentation covered a large number
of issues related to selecting, recruiting and
retaining staff. The aim was not to provide
participants with ready-made answers, but
rather to invite managers to reflect on their
own schools.
In a buoyant economy English teachers
become more scarce while the number of
students sharply increases. Robin pointed out
that the time had come again for schools to
increase their fees in order to offer better
terms to their staff. The market, at least in
larger cities in Switzerland, may now be ready
for this, though it is by no means certain as
competition remains fierce. There are probably
fewer and smaller language schools
teaching English to adults now than there
were 10 years ago. Where there has been
a sharp rise in demand in 2007 schools are
struggling to staff new courses and face a
number of thorny problems, such as finding
applicants, recruiting with the necessary care
and professionalism, mentoring new staff
properly whilst trying to offer existing staff an
increasingly interesting package of pay, social
security, the right teaching jobs, the desired
number of hours and a professional development
programme. Participants agreed that
ETAS was an important organisation as it
could assist in advertising jobs, providing
professional development and by offering
schools an attractive Second Pillar and Krankentaggeld
solution. The discussion showed
that larger schools would do well to offer more
professional development opportunities to
their staff. There was a need for incentives for
experienced staff not to wander off into different
careers. It seemed conceivable again that
DELTA programmes would stage a comeback,
together with post-CELTA programmes,
language awareness courses and in-service
teacher training workshops. Managers of
larger schools also felt that membership of
international school organisations such as
EAQUALS and International House would
help them to retain staff, as these organisations
offered an impressive range of professional
development packs for teachers. Working
for an ‘accredited’ language school looked
good in teachers’ CVs. Schools received
unsolicited applications from teachers who
had worked for similar schools abroad and
- at least in some organisations – there was
a sense of community extending beyond the
individual school.
Robin Hull