Parents stunned by high pay packages
English Schools Foundation (ESF) teachers, among the highest paid in international schools in Hong Kong, are to receive new benefits worth up to $18,000 a month.
The new package was approved by a special executive committee meeting of the ESF on Tuesday and will come into effect next September.
The package includes 80 per cent remission off ESF school fees for up to two children, a housing allowance of 30 per cent up to a maximum of $6,000, one-way air tickets on their initial appointment for themselves and their dependents, and medical cover.
All teachers will be eligible for the benefits, with the housing allowance to be phased in over three years. The package will gradually replace the more generous overseas contracts that those who joined the ESF prior to 1997 still enjoy. It also replaces the monthly salary supplements of $10,000, which have been offered on a discretionary basis since then, that have caused deep bitterness in ESF staffrooms across Hong Kong among teachers who have not received them. Those on these packages will have the option of switching to the new benefits or retaining what they now have.
Salaries quoted by the ESF during negotiations reveal that about 76 per cent of ESF teachers, excluding principals and deputies, earn more than $60,000 a month, and 42 per cent more than $70,000. These figures include the 20 per cent gratuity that they receive at the end of their two-year contracts, as well as allowances for extra responsibilities. They do not include existing benefits.
These figures are based on the staff profile at September 1999, which John Bohan, the ESF's financial controller, said had changed little since then. While noting that the profile of ESF teachers was increasingly young, he said teachers could reach the top of the pay scale by their late 20s.
Parents who pay school fees of $4,510 a month at primary level and $7,490 a month at secondary, were surprised when they saw the figures. 'I am stunned,' said one. 'I had no idea that teachers earned so much.'
Nicholas Bilcliffe, chairman of Kennedy School's Parent Teacher Association, said he was concerned that high salaries in the ESF in general could mean that funds were being diverted from other resources. 'Teachers should be going the extra mile to justify that pay, which is not to say that many are not doing so,' he said. Although there were many fine teachers, their comfortable positions could mean that they were out of touch with the realities of families on much lower incomes that the ESF served.
In comparison, native English teachers employed by the Government can earn up to $46,000 a month and, in addition, are given a $13,000 housing allowance and 15 per cent gratuity. Local teachers earn between $17,100 and $60,190 at secondary level, and $17,100 and $52,520 at primary.
The ESF benefits package is seen as necessary to attract a broader range of teachers. Since 1997, principals have been frustrated at having to avoid recruiting married teachers with children, because such applicants could not meet the cost of housing and educating a family in Hong Kong.
Those who joined the ESF prior to 1997 are in a better position, enjoying benefits worth around $350,000 a year, according to Mr Bohan. These include housing, school fees, passage to and from Hong Kong and medical cover.
The package approved, is designed to save money for the ESF, which this year has had its grant from Government capped at current levels. It is the outcome of eight months of meetings of a benefits working group, headed by the chairman of the ESF's management committee, Tim Hoffmann, who has also chaired the heated 'roadshow' meetings held in most ESF schools over the last six weeks.
Mr Hoffmann said there had been concern that the teacher profile had shifted to young, single people. 'While single teachers are as good as those who are married, we are looking for a spread that reflects the wider society,' he said. The ESF also needed teachers to be able to build long-term careers with the organisation.
David Reeves, chairman of the Association of Professional Teachers in ESF Schools (APTESF), said that he was satisfied with the final offer. 'The idea was to try to produce a new structure which created equity, which would recruit and retain future employees, and which would give some saving to the ESF,' he said. 'On the other hand, it does protect the packages of those who have been here a while.' During the roadshow meetings, many teachers asked why school fees could not go up to pay for more generous benefits. According to Mr Hoffmann, the main conflict was on the level of the housing benefit. 'The APTESF representatives fought vigorously for a high percentage and lower ceiling, but the executive committee determined that this was financially risky and chose the more conservative option,' he said.
Mr Bohan said management had resisted raising fees to pay for better benefits, adding that it would be wrong for the ESF to cater for only the richest families. 'The ESF should not be loading extra costs on parents,' he said. 'An awful lot of our parents are not earning as much as our teachers.'
School fees would not go up to pay for the new package, he said. In the short term, the ESF's surplus would meet the cost. In the longer term, greater savings would be made as those on the more expensive overseas contracts left Hong Kong.
Most ESF teachers are earning at least double what they could earn in Britain, where salaries range from GBP15,000 ($171,000) to GBP42,000 ($478,00), the latter enjoyed by a minority of the most advanced professionals.
But Mr Bohan defended the salaries. 'We want to hire the best teachers. We are not interested in hiring the average. It is clear that the future quality of the ESF depends on recruiting these sort of people.' This, he said, was what parents expected for their children. 'When you have to attract people to a strange place then there has to be a premium.'
With teachers in many Western countries so dissatisfied with pay and working conditions, the ESF has no shortage of high quality applicants. Mr Bohan said that in recent years between 2,000 and 3,000 teachers a year applied for ESF vacancies.
Jennifer Wisker, the ESF's chief executive, said she would be concerned if ESF salaries dropped below competitors in other international schools in Hong Kong. 'Everyone recognises that the salaries are good, and that they continue to attract excellent teachers from around the world,' she said.
About one-quarter of ESF teachers are still on the old overseas contracts. A further 92 on the two-year contracts have the newer $10,000 a month supplement. 'The supplement has had unintended consequences,' said Mr Hoffmann. 'It upset staff who did not get it and was insufficient to attract and retain teachers with families.'
Graphic: ESFGAN
Graphic: INTGAN