Salary of montessori teachers.

Recently when I was going through my web analystics, I found some keywords looking for salary payment in Malaysia. Just to be honest, to all the teachers who are thinking & planning of coming to Malaysia to work as a Montessori teacher, the salary scale for people even as a directress would not go above RM1,500 month. Most supervisors in a normal main-stream pre-school who work maybe until 3pm may only earn around that much.

Then again one has to know that if you were looking for a high-paying salary, teaching is not really the best profession to come into in any place unless if was done for the love of the job & children vs the monetary pay-outs.

Costs of living are going up, but the salaries of workers are not there. In Malaysia, there is no standard Union that negotiates for the salaries of the people, and is mostly done by the company itself in preparing a pay package in wanting to head-hunt or employ a staff personnel. Furthermore teachers are at a disadvantage due to union laws, as Malaysian regulations state that in order for teachers to have their unions established, they need to have an 8 work day. As most main-stream and also currently trained Montessori teachers either get off at 1pm or later, the establishment of teacher unions will have to take a long wait into the far future.

Montessori teacher training programmes in Malaysia do not come cheap, and are expensive for the average local Malaysian. It costs average about RM12,000 for the entire cost at most private colleges. This includes tutelage fees, membership to the MCI board (UK) and examination fees. Students who have failed their examinations are only allowed to retake their examinations once for the entire duration of the International Montessori Diploma (MCI) programme. After which, they will have to re-enrol for the entire program if they failed both times.

In summary, unless you had a supplement income aside from being a teacher (even as one in a Montessori position), it is difficult to make ends meet on that one job, even in a permanent position. A lot of these teachers need to have another part-time job, or like my friend, Annie, who comes from inter-state, although she did work as a Montessori teacher, her parents had to help her pay her rent because of her low pay. She knows that she can't survive on the pay that she is given.

To digress, if a candidate wanted higher pay per hour for work as either a casual childcare staff or teacher, a good place would be Australia.

However in order to be eligible to work as a teacher in preschools & kindergartens (it is different from Child Care Centres & Long Day Care Centres!), the candidate would need a 4-year teaching degree equivalent to the Australian Teaching Board requirements, & you have to be registered in each state's teaching registry if you are planning to work there. Casuals get higher pay rates as they do not get the whole package that permanent staff are entitled to i.e. unpaid leave, sick leave, medical benefits & all.

I'm not too sure about Montessori staff requirements, but as stated previously in one of my earlier entries, the candidate by legislation needs to possess a 4 year degree in order to work as a registered teacher in New South Wales preschools & kindergartens (since I am based here currently). Candidates not only need to possess the 4 yr degree, but need to have the Montessori diploma on top of it to be qualified to work as a Montessori teacher in the Montessori schools (there are Montessori primary & secondary schools in NSW).

Of course, that is in the books. In practice, the schools may work otherwise due to lack of Montessori trained teachers available that they have to settle for main-stream trained teachers to work in the schools.

However in retrospect, I was just thinking that if you do possess a Montessori qualification even with only a normal 3 yr or other degrees, the pre-school & kindergarten may consider you for work, but placing you in either a "unqualified" or "trainee" position (meaning less pay!). Anyways, this is all at the discretion of the employer who will decide if they want to employ or not. It is financially onerous on the hiring & education system in Australia by the way it is set out, but that is something that they have to work out.

Just remember, in order to work in a Preschool & Kindergarten (i.e Queensland's Creche & Kindergarten), the position of a registered teacher needs a 4-year-degree, & in a Child Care Centre & Long Day Care Centres, (i.e ABC Learning Centres, CFK Childcare Centres), the Early Childhood teacher needs a 3-year degree (otherwise known as Early Childhood Teacher).

Other positions available in a childcare centre (either long day care or similar) which is not a teaching position includes the Classroom Assistant (generally thought of as an untrained position) who requires a Cert III in Children Services, and Advanced Child Care Worker which requires a Diploma in Children Services (a trained position). If you are wondering, these are all Australian TAFE qualifications. If you have no idea what it is, it doesn't matter as only mostly locals and foreigners who have been in Australia for a while would have considered taking it.

The hourly rates for Early Childhood Teachers casuals (ECT- 3 yr degree Bachelor of Teaching/Early Childhood) who work in Childcare Centres & Day Care Centres, have rates starting from AUD26.6/hour to as high as about 37/hour. For registered teachers (4 year Bachelor of Education) work in public/private schools, preschools & kindergartens, rates should be about AUD 40+. This depends on the pay rates that agents are willing to pay their casuals, so do your research & pick a good one to develop a relationship with!

Permanent staff are paid lower but they get more stable shifts, as it is costly for centres to take on casual staff. If you are good at your work, the centre will repeatedly for you to return to work. I have been to centres where there are casuals who have been working there for months! Some from the same agent that I am from, and others from the other childcare agents in Sydney.

For the international and foreigner, you have to know that if it weren't for the adult:children ratio that is mandated in the Australian childcare legislation, casuals like us would not be able to find employment. So it does provide some advantages of providing employment to companies and relief staff like us. I doubt you'd be able to find work as a relief teacher in Malaysia as such a system has yet to exist, and probably not even in the far future yet.

Till now, I have not been assigned to a Montessori school for relief work. So I am unable to tell you how it is like although it is my desire to check out the Montessori schools around here soon. I do hope that my agent will send me to a Montessori school, as though I am trained to work in a play-based educational setting, my desire is still to work in a Montessori school.

As much as I would like to encourage you to take up permanent work, from what I have heard, pay for staff in childcare is horrendously low whether in the States, Australia, or Malaysia. Hmm... But it really depends on what you want.

A Toddler Jonah Day.

Today is one of those days that just started out right but have a very exasperating middle & a fantastic ending.

It started out a warm & sunny day. Remind me that I should never complain about the sunny weather especially when I am running out of warm clothing (just waiting for my supply to arrive, hopefully in the next two weeks). Winter clothing costs an arm & leg, so I think I shall just wait for my parents to send it from KL. Postage isn't too bad when the Australian currency exchange is about RM3: AUD1.

Anyways, today I worked with the toddlers..... Oh my gosh.. the toddlers were acting up! There were 5 boys who were pretty disruptive, and the rest of the group who were watching decided to join them. So the entire group was pretty much acting up.

I kept on reflecting about the reasons why I could have such difficulty in handling them, & partly the reason I realised that is because I wasn't using the right way to interact with them.

Toddlers have different needs from pre-schoolers. This age group requires more kindness, patience & a different way of talking than from the older age group. Of course, sometimes what we read in books at university can only be translated to knowledge with a real life scenario on a continual basis. Since I do not primarily handle this age group, it was a real tremendous learning curve for me.

These are some of the things I remember & observed about them:

• Toddlers are at the developmental stage that they don't take well to strangers & new faces.
• Toddlers are still mostly blabbing and speaking in two or three word sentences, sometimes its harder for a casual to understand what they are trying to say.
• Toddlers respond better to a kind word rather than a direct instruction (they may not understand what the adult wants and thus ignores them!).
• Toddlers listen better if the adult makes it like a game for them to follow instructions.
• Toddlers still need a firm hand at the end of the day.
  

I guess that just means that I have to adapt the way I talk to them than what I was originally planning to do. Oh well!

My experience with Sydney childcare recruitment.

Today is my third day in a new centre. It is located near Chatswood. It takes about 40 minutes of travel by bus, as there is no direct train to this area, and I had to change buses halfway. Actually I do believe that Agent C has been sending me to further & further childcare centres then I was originally signed up to be. So far even without having a map, I have been able to find my way around to the various centres that I have been assigned to.

Perhaps my sense of direction is getting better? LOL. (Now, you're probably wondering what in the world is this crazy female talking about, I'm sure?).

Well, I was initially signed up for three days with this centre, but my agent called this morning to ask if I wanted to work the other extra two days more with them, to which I told her why not? Well anyway that is not the point of my entry here. The point of this entry is to write about my experience with the agents I have worked with till date.

In NSW as far as I am concerned, there are quite a number of childcare staffing agencies which one could easily find if they logged on employment sites like Seek.Com. It is among one of many sites used for Australian job opportunities. Some childcare staffing agencies have offices in each state, whilst some are just primarily based in one state only, and they do advertise heavily on these sites.

If my readers want to know, I am currently signed in with two childcare staffing agents. The former, Agent E, of which is a pretty big company with offices in Victoria & NSW, and the latter, Agent C, primarily based in NSW with links to shipping & a booming franchaise of learning centres.

As a disclaimer, please do not take my word as gospel, because in terms of what I know about both agents is only my experience and through hearsay. Perhaps you had a different experience, and if you did, do share.

Of both agents, my preference is for Agent C. This is primarily because it only has a small office and staff which are able to work effectively & effeciently. In my time working as a casual for them, I have come to know the "administrator" T. , who goes around personally calling & scheduling & arranging shifts. This makes the work & company more personable.

Every week Agent C's office sends out a text that asks all casuals whether they would be free for work in the next week. When there is an occurence, she would personally call the candidates. As a casual, I find it very assuring as I would know whom to speak to if I were to find myself in a difficult spot.

The former, Agent E gives the candidates a very intimidating impression. At least that is the "feel" that I as a casual get. They give candidates a common hotline number & candidates are expected to inform the office of their availability each week independently.

Agent E's office which is based in Sydney is very particular about following rules & regulations, and everything to the dot. Because the company is huge, I find that each time I would like to speak to someone in the company, I have been directed to 3-4 different personnel, and I have no idea who they are because they are all dealing with different areas in the company. In some ways, I would state that Agent E's work practice & ethics is good to what is considered Australian standards, & probably re-assuring for the parents & staff, but in some ways it can be rather very intimidating.

The company (at least the one based in Sydney) does not make it a practice to give out staff tags until the candidates have passed their Work With Children Check & even double-checks with the NSW Dept.of Community Services in regard to their qualifications. Agent E is very particular about their casuals following the rules, and also the centres which they send their candidates to meet up to their expectations as well.

Agent E would probably work very well in a very idealistic-perfect- world where children's rights are the top-most priority, but in the real & political world, not many people actually hold up to the same perspective. ( I shall probably share more on this later) As a casual who is already qualified with a Bachelor of Early Childhood from Queensland, however I think that I would have starved if I had been made dependent on Agent E in providing shifts & work vacancies.

I do not believe there is one right way of handling a business or following the rules, as I know that what one learns in the books at Uni is different from what is in the real working world, as you can see this from reading my previous posts. (You mean you don't? That just means you have to start back-log reading NOW!)

However I believe that my experience in working with both agents have enabled me to understand the dynamics & the different kind of requirements & staffing agencies that are available in the market, at least in terms of NSW. This is just a small sample of the market, but a representative of what is really out there!

In the end it really depends on the candidates on what they feel works best for them, because eventually they have to find that one company that they can actually focus & spend their time building & developing long-term work relations with for a better future for no one else but themselves.

Related entries:
5th May: Important things a Casual Relief Childcare Worker should know.