Education in India

More on the travails of Indian teachers in Florida

It turns out that the 16 Indian math and science teachers, most from Tamil Nadu, now teaching in schools in Florida, USA, have been having a very rough ride. According to a news report, the Indian teachers in Florida schools are being paid as little as $50 per day, which works out to just about Florida's minimum wageof $6.79 per hour , assuming a 7 hour day.

Aside from a few minor cultural differences, the program seemed fine. School administrators, faculty, students and their parents quickly adjusted to different teaching styles. Many students found their new teachers inspiring. Math and science became fun, they said. While it was the St. Lucie School District that employed and paid the teachers, Florida Atlantic University initiated the program last summer and handled the visa paperwork through its International Office.

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I'm told this mess may all boil down to a clerical error in the type of visa that was applied for. Both Lannon and FAU's Aloia say they are "cautiously optimistic" that Washington can fix the problem and the teachers will be able return to St. Lucie classrooms. We pay substitute teachers $70 a day to be babysitters; we paid highly qualified, excellent Indian teachers $50 a day. That's no way to treat anyone, wherever they're from.

The U.S. State Department has come down hard on Florida Atlantic University (FAU), who had organised for the Indian teachers to come and teach in Florida's schools. FAU seems to have goofed up not just in terms of the clerical error in the visas, but also in paying the Indian teachers on par with local teachers.

The State Department has blasted Florida Atlantic University for raising the specter of "servitude" by recruiting experienced Indian teachers for public schools and paying them "poverty" wages while the college accepted money to administer the program. Under an internship contract between FAU and the school district, the 16 teachers - all of whom have master's degrees and multiple years of experience - were to be paid as interns for the first half of the year and receive a regular teacher's salary the second half. The school district paid the normal salary rate the first half of the year but gave the Indian teachers only $5,000 of that amount and sent the remainder to FAU to administer the program, said Susan Ranew, a St. Lucie schools human resources official.

It's unclear how much FAU earned under the pilot program, but a teacher with a master's degree and three years' experience would earn $38,700 a year, or $19,350 per semester, Ranew said. An Indian teacher with those credentials would have earned $5,000 last semester and FAU would have received the difference of $14,350, Ranew said. If that number were representative of all 16 teachers, it means FAU could have earned $229,600 under the pilot program.

FAU President Frank Brogan said the money was used to hire mentors for each teacher, host an orientation session in India and help the teachers find housing and transportation.
"We've lost money in the program," Brogan said. "It has turned out to be incredibly expensive to administer because of the additional time and costs of getting people settled in a foreign country."

The State Department said there has been an "egregious misuse of the university's privileges" as a sponsor of the Exchange Visitor Program and said it places the department in a potential "state of notoriety and disrepute." "To pay the master's level-educated teachers with three to five years' experience a wage at or below poverty level may be interpreted by some as a form of peonage or servitude imposed upon foreign nationals by a State Department-designated sponsor," Stanley Colvin of the department's Office of Exchange Designation and Coordination wrote FAU on Jan. 24.

Brogan said the Indian teachers were aware of the salary when they agreed to participate and are paid the same as U.S. teaching interns. In a sharply worded letter sent to FAU last month, the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs chastised FAU for recruiting teachers under a short-term scholars program designed only to allow foreign students to study up to six months at FAU.

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Brogan on Friday acknowledged that an FAU employee mistakenly applied for teaching visas under the student program but denied treating the teachers as servants or profiting from it. The international pilot program was modeled after a successful one that has involved U.S. teaching interns since 2002. The foreign-exchange program has proven so costly, Brogan said, FAU decided in October not to renew it for a second year.

"It's a great, innovative ideal to bring them over here," Brogan said. "There's no question the error in the visa assignment was ours, and it has caused a great deal of difficulty with these 16 fine people and their students. We're hoping to get word any moment that they'll get to stay the rest of the school year."

There has been nothing and all so far in the Indian press about this issue. Even the local press in Florida have been looking at it entirely from the point of view of the Florida school system and the State Department. There's no viewpoint of the Indian teachers caught in the midst of all the finger-pointing between FAU, the school district and the State Department. There's no mention either of the role of MERIT, the Indian agency involved in sourcing the teachers for FAU. But the hosts have been trying their best to help the Indian teachers through the trying times, starting from the local Congressman, down to the teachers, staff and officials.

U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney said another concern he had was the $5,000 total stipend teachers received for their first semester of pay. "I just wanted to make sure that the foreign nationals weren't being taken advantage of and they were treated the same as other teachers in the district," he said.

The pay, which FAU provided to the district, was set in a contract and is the same amount given to FAU education students interning at the district, said Sue Ranew, district's assistant superintendent of human resources. Participants in both programs are treated as interns and teach for one semester in the district. If participants are successful, they are hired as full-time teachers, with benefits and union membership.

Ranew said district's teachers, staff and officials realized the financial hardship the Indian teachers were in and helped them out. "We gave them gift cards and furniture," she said. "We sent out an e-mail district wide with things the teacher needed and asked staff to donate."

In January, the Indian teachers began earning regular teacher salaries with benefits and union membership. And on Friday the teachers received a paycheck from work previously completed, Ranew said.

Also see the earlier post on the problems faced by these Indian teachers.

Indian math and science teachers teaching in schools in Florida

The Merit India Teacher Program organised by Madras Education and Research Integrated Trust (MERIT) and Florida Atlantic University, inviting Indian math and science teachers to teach in Florida's schools has run into heavy weather. A news report last October pointed to some teething troubles with the accents of the Indian teachers.

Durai Sathanan - "Mr. Durai," as he is known to his Dan McCarty Middle School students - is one of 17 teachers from India who began teaching in the St. Lucie County School District this fall as part of the Merit India Teacher program with Florida Atlantic University. The purpose of the program is to help school districts in the state fill vacancies for experienced math and science teachers, said FAU professor Rangasamy Ramasamy, the program's coordinator.

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This is the first year of the program, which started with a test run last year with one teacher, who was placed at Fort Pierce Westwood High School. And in the inaugural year, there have been some growing pains as students adjust to teachers' accents. Parent Ron Arold's daughter attends Southport Middle School and can't understand her Indian science teacher. And since the start of the year, he has watched her grades drop from A's to F's.

He said after many meetings with school officials, his daughter was transferred to another class. "I'm not prejudiced or anything, but my child is failing and I have to do something," Arold said. "I'm happy that someone comes here and tries to make good for themselves."

Now it seems, the Indian teachers are having trouble with their visas.

U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney is working with the U.S. State Department to help to resolve the visa mishap that resulted in 16 teachers from India being removed from their classrooms on Feb. 8. "We're in contact with (the State Department) and awaiting final word as to whether the teachers will be allowed to stay through the end of the school year. I will continue working with the Department of State, St. Lucie County and (Florida Atlantic University) to ensure that students do not suffer by losing their teachers," Mahoney said in an e-mail sent Friday morning.

School District and FAU officials said they have not heard whether the visa problem had been resolved.

The problem occurred when the teachers were hired in August and were given the wrong type of short-term visas - ones that did not allow extension requests. FAU officials learned of the problem in late November and have been working with the State Department since December to resolve the issue. The visas expired Feb. 9 and officials have 30 days until March 9 to get the teachers new visas or they could be deported.

District officials have been using substitute teachers at $70 a day to fill in since the teachers were removed from their classrooms.

An earlier report had stated that the program has been cancelled for next fall.

A controversial pilot program to use teachers from India in St. Lucie County schools will not be returning in the fall, officials said Wednesday. Florida Atlantic University decided in October to cancel the program, which placed 17 teachers from India in St. Lucie County public schools this year because it became too "labor intensive," said Gregory Aloia, dean of the FAU College of Education, which oversees the program.

College of Education officials were responsible for helping the teachers find housing and transportation - issues they weren't prepared to handle. "The level of effort and the energy required to keep the program up and running, (a College of Education committee) felt it would not be consistent with the mission of the College of Education to get involved with this kind of international recruitment and training of teachers," Aloia said.

The purpose of the program was to help school districts fill vacancies for experienced math and science teachers. Teachers in the program all have master's degrees and tested proficient in speaking English. Parents have been critical of the program because some students were having trouble understanding their teachers. Southport Middle School parent Laura Ostashev on Monday said she saw her son's math grades fall from A's and B's to D's and F's and he is now being tutored. "Everyone deserves a chance but not at the expense of my son's education," she said.

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Without the program continuing in the fall, district officials will have to find more teachers to fill an existing teacher shortage.

Questions have also been raised on whether the Indian teachers were paid fairly.

But Mahoney said he was concerned that the teachers, who were brought to St. Lucie County to help fill needed public school positions in math, science and special education, may not have been adequately paid. While weighing in on the teachers' behalf, Mahoney's office learned of a Jan. 24 letter sent by the State Department to Florida Atlantic University questioning the teachers' compensation.

FAU brought the teachers to the United States in August and placed them in six St. Lucie schools, including Treasure Coast High, Southport Middle and Dan McCarty Middle. They were paid about $5,000 each for the first half of the year and started earning a regular teaching salary in January, said Susan Ranew, the school district's assistant superintendent of human resources.

Mahoney said he raised the compensation issue in a telephone call Thursday with FAU President Frank Brogan, stressing that the university must pay the Indian teachers the same rate as American teachers at the same job level. "It's vital to make sure that people are not inadvertently being taken advantage of," Mahoney said he told Brogan. "I got every assurance from President Brogan that they were being treated the same as any other American student teacher." Mahoney said he planned to talk to Brogan about the matter again today.

Mahoney's office was not the only one that leapt to the teachers' aid. The offices of Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, also were involved, although Mahoney's office spearheaded the effort.

The Indian teachers have been on unpaid leave since Friday because of a problem with their visas, which expired Feb. 9. People with expired visas have 30 days to voluntarily leave the country. If they overstay their visas, they could face difficulty if they seek readmission. FAU recruited the teachers, all of whom have master's degrees and multiple years of experience, as part of a pilot program to fill much-needed school positions.

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Of the 17 teachers who arrived in St. Lucie in August, 16 were asked to stay when their probationary period ended in January, Ranew said.

I had written earlier about Indian teachers going abroad to teach. While the teacher shortage in Amercia is an opportunity for Indian teachers to go and teach in USA, they will need to overcome the challenges of accent and adjusting to a different culture and society as well.