On the eve of a legal battle against discrimination*

(*recruiters who refuse to hire non-native English-speaking teachers)

Having been a victim of discrimination for several years now, here is the situation today :

-       No decision and no support from the French defender of rights since I started to report the bad practices to them with written proofs 8 months ago ;

-         No support from trade unions (the ones which apply to my activity as a freelancer)

-          Some good news though : SOS racisme (a famous French association) supports me in this battle !

-         Lawyer fees spent for no result so far (due to schools’ refusals to admit any wrongdoing);

-         In France, there has been no similar case of an English teacher taking schools to court for this kind of discrimination in recruitment. 

Here are some big questions that French judges may need to answer in the coming months/years (the answers may seem obvious to some of you, but the outcome is never certain...

-         Is it legal for a language school to ask for a native English teacher, insofar as this is an essential and crucial professional requirement for the job ? (some discriminatory practices are allowed under certain conditions in France as per the French Labour Code, but this text should not apply to my case as a freelancer...)

 

If it is legal, then should all English teachers in the world whose mother tongue is not English, including the numerous ones who teach in French public and private schools, stop teaching because they don’t match this crucial requirement ? 

 

-         Is it legal for a language school to ask for a native English teacher, insofar as this is a request from their clients ?

 

Why this post ?

First of all, I would like you to share and repost this message as much as you can : If anyone who reads this post has ever been in my situation or that of Rachel Tsateri (Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers whose applications were turned down by one or more English schools, explicitely, with written proofs, because they were not Native English-Speaking Teachers), please contact me !

Why ? Because we might provide each other with interesting information on a legal level, we could as well share lawyers’ fees if you want to take legal action in France…and because together we stand, divided we fall !

Once again, this is not only my legal battle, this is the battle of a huge global community of NNESTs throughout the world…and the more victims will take action, the more chances to win and the sooner the world of ELT will get rid of those bad practices.

While some of you spend time and efforts educating on the subject, which is necessary and undoubtedly useful, I spend mine trying to get justice done, hoping that one day our efforts will meet, as more justice will meet education, and that I will have brought my own contribution to it.

To wrap up this post, I invite you to read and ponder the following information on the CELTA qualification that I own, taken from :

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/teaching-qualifications/celta/

 

The gold standard teaching qualification

 

CELTA from Cambridge is a qualification for teaching English as a foreign language. It is the most widely recognised English teaching qualification in the world and the most often requested by employers; three out of four English language teaching jobs require a CELTA qualification.

 

It focuses on developing practical techniques, and includes face-to-face or online teaching practice with groups of learners, which will give you the confidence you need to begin teaching in as little as four weeks.

 

Whether you’re looking for your first teaching job, or you want to prove to employers that you have the required teaching skills with a recognised certificate, CELTA from Cambridge is the qualification you need.

 

 

Who is CELTA for?

 

new teachers with no experience starting their career

teachers with some experience who want to develop their skills

first-language English speakers and non-first-language speakers

teachers who want to travel and teach English

 

 

Minimum entry requirements

·         proficient English language user (CEFR level high C1 or above)

·         educated to the standard required for entry into higher education

·         age 18+

 

 Employers around the world trust CELTA

« You have an absolute assurance in quality … after someone has finished a CELTA qualification they can go straight into a classroom. »

Chris Jones
Director of Centre Operations
Navitas English, Australia

 

So…who are the liars ?

 

Vincent

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 NATIVE SPEAKERISM IN LANGUAGE TEACHING : I HAVE HUGE NEWS !! After nearly two years of waiting for justice to be done further to discriminatory refusals to give me work as an English teacher, and after noticing that the regulatory bodies for vocational training simply do not care about this issue, I HAVE VERY GOOD NEWS !! THE DEFENDER OF RIGHTS (Défenseur des Droits), AN INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTION, HAS MADE A DECISION REGARDING ONE MY CASES, STATING THAT HIRING DISCRIMINATION BASED ON ORIGIN AND NATIONALITY OCCURRED, BY WHICH THEY REQUEST THE RESPONDENT TO PAY ME FAIR COMPENSATION FOR THE PREJUDICE CAUSED, AND THEY ARE READY TO GIVE ME THEIR FULL SUPPORT IF I GO TO COURT (SHOULD A SETTLEMENT FAIL TO BE REACHED BETWEEN ME AND THE LANGUAGE SCHOOL WITHIN THE NEXT THREE MONTHS). THEY ALSO REQUEST THE SCHOOL TO IMPLEMENT A NEW RECRUITMENT PROCESS WHICH ENSURES THAT THE MOTHER TONGUE OF CANDIDATES IS NO LONGER A CRITERION, AND THAT AN UNEQUIVOCAL REQUIREMENT WITH REGARDS TO LA
Read more
Image
Welcome to SONDANNESTs (Supporters Of Non-Discrimination Against Non-Native English Speaking Teachers) ! What is this blog ? This blog is dedicated to all teachers of English and any other people who want to support non-discrimination against non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs). Who am I and h ow was this blog born ? After several years of working as a freelance English teacher in France, I have been discriminated against by training organisations because of my French origins… Research has clearly shown that native English teachers are not the only ones able to deliver good English lessons and that there can be real advantage to being taught by NNESTs. In this blog I will also talk about the people who have carried out such reasearch works. Surprisingly enough, after months of research on the internet and until recently, I still couldn’t find any case of a teacher who had taken legal action against an organisation which had discriminated against  them . If this practi
Read more
Breaking news !!   After more than a year of fighting to defend Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs), here is where we are now.   -           13 refferal files open with the French Defender of Rights (the latest file was open…today !) This means potentionally 13 organisations or schools convicted for discriminatory practises…but let’s be a bit realistic given the legal uncertainty…probably less ! ; -           Still no decision has been made by the French Defender of Rights, which is « normal » due to the infamous red tape…but many of the 13 cases are already being investigated (which takes months). According to the jurist I spoke to over the phone, some decisions should be made by the end of the year if I am lucky... ; -           An ever-growing worldwide community on LinkedIn is aware of discriminatory practices and it is starting to voice things out loud ! This is very uplifting !!; -         After reporting discriminatory practices to France Compétences more
Read more