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Originally Posted by GTJ
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Yes, the wonderful life of an ALT in Japan. A school board pays big bucks to a dispatch agency, who then keeps the lion's share and gives what's left to an inexperienced, recently graduated "teacher" who has a degree in something like basket weaving. This is done intentionally.
A few years ago laws were passed to regulate dispatch companies and their use by boards of education. The law states that after 1 year of working for the school board through the dispatch agency, the school board is supposed to hire the teacher directly. In reality this is almost never the case. The teacher goes back to wherever he came from, and a new "temporary" teacher is hired through the dispatch company to work for another year. School board members have "relationships" with dispatch companies (likely receiving kickbacks), and no one in government seems to want to take the time to enforce the laws.
With this system teachers leave after one year is over, just when he or she is beginning to learn how to teach. A new and inexperienced person is hired to "teach", which of course does the students little help. Teachers are for the most part ignorant of the law (you won't find it mentioned in your contract), or have illegal "non-competition" clauses stating that you cannot leave the dispatch company to work for a competitor (or board of education directly). Do you wonder why dispatch companies prefer to hire inexperienced people fresh out of university who have no knowledge of Japanese? Now you do.
If you are an experienced teacher with a degree in English or education (and can speak Japanese) who wants to work in a public school, your best bet is to apply to the board of education directly and not waste your time with dispatch companies. You'll make double the money with half the headaches. Your students will learn something because you are a teacher, not a fresh, foreign face with a non-education related degree working his first job out of university.