Half of foreign teachers in Heilongjiang have no proper qualification

A foreign teacher from the United States learns writing Chinese character in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Jan. 20, 2014. [Photo: Xinhua]

The head of two foreign language training agencies in the city of Harbin have been questioned by police for allegedly allowing foreign teachers without proper qualifications on their payroll.

This comes amid word only half of the foreign teachers in the province of Heilongjiang aren't properly registered.

In China, foreigners now have to be properly qualified before gaining entry and teaching in the country.

This requires a foreign expert certificate.

Lang Xianbo is with the foreign expert office in Heilongjiang.

"The foreigner must have no criminal record, be healthy and hold at least bachelor's degree with two years teaching experience. Only then can they qualify for a foreign expert's certificate in China."

Despite the rules, a number of foreign language training agencies in Harbin have been recruiting foreign teachers without the proper qualifications.

"To be honest with you, the foreign teachers here are not officially qualified, but they do have experience. I have a good fiend teaching here named Divine. He has been in China for over 7 years and he can speak Chinese very well. It's true he doesn't have professional credentials. But he can teach people about how to handle things in their daily life."

One of the training agencies under investigation allegedly hired a teacher with a tourist visa.

The individual from Cameroon has since been expelled from the country.

Authorities estimate of the roughly 2-thousand foreign teachers working in Heilongjiang, only half of them have a foreign expert certificate.

Lang Xianbo with the foreign expert office contends hiring a teacher without the proper qualifications won't help students achieve their goals.

He also suggests the rules need to be spelled out more clearly.

"We need to better publicize how teaching qualification works for the agencies involved when it comes to recruiting foreign teachers. The foreign teacher's information should also be available to the public."

Authorities in Heilongjiang have now launched a broad-scale evaluation of the foreign language training agencies in the province.