In our Teach in China program, you can teach English in China. You get the chance to immerse yourself in another culture, gain important work experience, and make an excellent salary. You might be suited best for certain types of schools. It just depends on your interest and level of experience. With all of these schools, teachers have a salary and work schedule. In addition to the salary, teachers also either have a private apartment included or a rent stipend. Believe it or not, a flight subsidy and the visa cost are also included in the program. So basically once you’ve paid the small program fee of $425, nearly everything else is included! The only other things you need to pay for is your food, which is very affordable.

Here are the 5 school types in China:

🎒 Kindergarten Schools
🗣️ Private Language Schools / Training Centers
🏫 Public Schools (from elementary to high school)
📙 Private / International Schools (from elementary to high school)
📚 Colleges/Universities

Kindergarten Schools

Teaching kindergarten in China is like teaching kindergarten in many other Asian countries. As you might expect, It’s far more active and free than teaching older children. Most of the lessons include dancing, singing, and games to keep the kids engaged. The teachers at these schools will have office hours to prepare lessons or teaching materials with your colleagues. Some of the materials you might use in a lesson could include pictures, worksheets, crafts, etc.

Let’s break it down:

• Salary — $2100 to $3700 per month (14,000 RMB to 24,000 RMB). Salary varies based on the teacher’s qualification and school location.
• Age of students — Students are 3 to 6 six years old
• Class size — Ranges from 12 to 28 students
• Hours — About 40 hours per week (this includes office hours)
• Schedule — Usually 8 am to 11:40 am & 2:30 pm to 17:30 pm, Monday to Friday
• Vacation — One month summer vacation and one month winter vacation
• Other info — There will be at least two other adults per class. One is a Chinese teaching assistant and the other is a life teacher in the same class. Some kindergarten classes will even have 4 or 5 adult teachers if the class is large.

Private Language Schools and Training Centers

Private language schools are the most common places to teach English in China. There is a huge demand for English teachers so there are many private organizations in this industry. Private language schools are not public institutions, rather they are businesses. Private language schools can be split into two groups: large companies and independent schools. The independent schools are single schools (or possibly a couple of branches). Some of the well-known brands include: EF, Sesame Street, First Leap, ABIE, Best Learning, and American Imagine English. The training centers can be split into two groups as well: centers for young learners (3-12 years old) or for older learners (12-30 years old).

Because these institutions are private companies, teachers are usually required to give demo classes to new students and or parents. Since this is a challenging position for new teachers, the schools provide regular training to help. This is a great position for someone looking to improve their teaching skills and gain work experience.

Let’s break it down:

• Salary — $2,140 to $3,520 per month for native speakers (14,000 RMB to 23,000 RMB)
  *Note: Since these are private institutions, salary and benefits vary greatly depending on the school and the teacher’s experience)
• Age of students — Students are 3 to 30 years old, depending on the school
• Class size — Ranges from 6 to 15 students
• Hours — About 40 hours per week
• Schedule — Two days off during weekdays and two days teaching on the weekend (i.e. Monday and Tuesday free, Wednesday to Friday regular work hours, then Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm (with a 2-hour lunch break).
• Vacation — Summer vacation is 1 to 2 weeks and winter vacation is 1-2 weeks
• Other info — This work can be challenging for new teachers, but you’ll have regular trainings

Public Schools

Public schools include primary (elementary), secondary (middle), and high schools. These public schools are registered under the local Educational Bureau (EB) so they fall under the government system. Each year, the EB provides budgets to different schools for hiring Chinese or foreign teachers. These schools are regulated so they have more predictable, working standards. These schools don’t provide teaching assistants, but they also don’t have the higher requirements for teachers as the private and international schools.

Let’s break it down:

• Salary — $1220 to $2000 per month (8,000 RMB to 13,000 RMB)
• Age of students — Students are 6 to 12 years old in primary school, 12-15 years old in secondary school, and 15-18 years old in high school
• Class size — Ranges from 30 to 55 students
• Hours — About 15-25 hours per week (depending on how many classes you teach)
• Schedule — 8 am to 12 pm, and 2 pm to 5 pm, Monday to Friday
• Vacation — 2 months summer vacation and 2 months winter vacation
• Other info — There are two semesters in China; one from September to January and one from Feb/March to July. Because of these two semesters, public schools have longer holidays compared to private schools. Contracts will often be 10 months long with these schools.

Private International Schools

Teachers at these institutions have fixed hours and need to be with their students the whole day. The salary is higher in these schools than public schools and it can vary based on the teacher’s qualifications. Candidates should have applicable teaching experience or a teaching certificate to work in these schools. There are four types of International schools in China. They are:

1. Expatriate schools
   These schools only accept students of expats living in China.
2. Sino-Foreign cooperative schools
   Many of these schools follow international curriculum such as: British A-level (General Certificate of Education Advanced Level), British IB (International Baccalaureate diploma Program), American AP (Advanced Placement), American PGA (Project of Global Access), and Australian VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education).
3. Chinese-owned private schools
   These are also called bilingual schools. These institutions can accept both Chinese students and foreigners.
4. Chinese-owned public school international departments
   Some public schools in China now offer lucrative ‘international streams.’ These departments teach the national Chinese curriculum in both Chinese and English as an option to high school students.

Let’s break it down:

• Salary — $2,300 to $4,300 per month (15,000 RMB to 28,000 RMB)
• Age of students — Students are 6 to 18 years old
• Class size — Ranges from 10 to 25 students
• Hours — 40 hours per week
• Schedule — 8 am to 5:30 pm, Monday to Friday
• Vacation — 1 to 1.5 months summer vacation and 1 month winter vacation

Colleges & Universities

There are many colleges and universities all over China. Public universities are held in higher regard than private universities. Compared to other school positions, teaching in universities can be the most relaxing. This is because the weekly teaching hours are less and teachers don’t hold office hours.

The content of teaching in these positions depends on which departments or majors the teachers is in. For example, if you teach English majors, you might be require to teach oral English, English history, literature, or writing, etc. If you teach a specific subject matter such as business management, accounting, economics, etc., your salary may be higher.

• Salary — $1,225 to $2,140 per month (8,000 to 14,000 RMB)
• Age of students — Students are usually 18 to 22 years old
• Class size — Ranges from 28 to 60 students
• Hours — About 16-22 hours per week (depending on how many classes you teach)
• Schedule — 8 am to 12 pm, and 2 pm to 5 pm, Monday to Friday
• Vacation — 1.5 to 2 months summer vacation and 1 month winter vacation
• Other info — Universities usually require university teachers to have a Masters degree or higher. However, if a candidate has a bachelor’s degree and a lot of teaching experience, they can also be considered.

That’s a wrap for our summary on types of schools in China! We love that there are so many options. No matter what your stage of life, there are opportunities suited for you. Which school would you be most interested in?