Wow, what an amazing journey it has been. Over 2 ½ years ago I started with VIPKID through desperation to keep our travel dreams alive and didn’t know what to expect. I have taught hundreds of students and thousands of classes in that time and have been able to continue traveling. I have collaborated with VIPKID to write stories about our travels while teaching that have been published in Chinese and on VIPKIDS American/ English Blog.
New Chinese Policies
Recently the Chinese government set into action a set of policies that at their heart was to lighten the workload of students in China. Part of the policies limit online learning on holidays, weekends and cutting off learning after 9pm. Initially I thought “this is great” as I have always encouraged my students to go have a little fun or relax instead of giving them more homework on top of the massive pile they already have. My opinion was that kids should have a break from learning and competition to be able to spend time with friends or family, maybe even find a love for travel.
The heartbreaking news with the new regulations was the banning of all foreign teachers in mainland China. I’m not sure what prompted this and really cannot give a lot of insight from my own speculation. I just know the outcome was that we were sent a letter from VIPKID informing us of the new policy and that the students we have taught and grown close to will be able to finish their current contracts but not be able to renew them with VIPKID.
Reactions to the News
Many teachers on the facebook groups and teachers I know in real life were shocked at the news. There was an outcry of sadness and disbelief as the news spread around social media. The reaction was mostly about teachers missing the kids but for some this has been their full time job and they have built their life around online teaching.
VIPKID’s Reaction
VIPKID is one of the biggest players in the online teaching space and is a multibillion dollar company with offices in San Francisco and Beijing. My point being that they have stated that they are not going down without a fight. And it makes sense because they have a lot to lose. They have had plans to expand into other countries for a while and this just might be the motivation that they need to jumpstart some of those alternate programs.
VIPKID has stated things will change but they are dedicated to their workforce of foreign teachers that are eager to continue working.
VIPKID’s Regulation Update on August 25, 2021 at 9:00pm Beijing Time
As of August 25, 2021, VIPKid was informed of the following required changes:
- Classes can no longer take place during the summer holiday. This means that all classes from August 27 to August 31 (Beijing Time) will be canceled. All impacted classes will be removed from your schedule at midnight on August 26 (Beijing Time). These classes will be treated as student cancellations outside of 24 hours (Student No Show 24H). Additionally, to confirm, these classes will not count towards a teacher’s maximum number of canceled classes allowed within a contract period.
- As of September 1, classes can resume from Mondays to Fridays (Beijing Time). Classes will no longer be able to take place during the weekend. If you currently have classes scheduled on Saturday or Sunday after September 1, these classes will be removed from your schedule. All currently booked classes on weekdays on and after September 1 will not be impacted. You will also be able to open slots and receive new bookings on weekdays on and after September 1.
All parents will be informed of these changes from their child’s Learning Partner (LP) before August 27 (Beijing Time). Please note that your students outside of Mainland China are not impacted by these regulations and we will work with them directly.
We are incredibly disheartened to share this news, as we had been optimistic that students would be able to continue taking classes during holidays and weekends on the VIPKid platform.
We want to acknowledge that we wholeheartedly recognize this update may significantly impact the livelihoods of many in the community and your loved ones at home. Please know that VIPKid is doing everything we can to support teachers in the community and we are continuing our efforts to provide additional opportunities for teachers to succeed on the VIPKid platform. Your continued and future success is top of mind for VIPKid and VIPKid will continue to work to make this success a reality.
How Things Have Changed For My Teaching Journey
I will start out by stating that in the 2 ½ years of teaching I have had very few breaks. I taught seven days a week in the mornings and in most evenings. My waking hours were between 3:15 and 3:45 AM everyday and my night classes sometimes would extend to 11pm. With the new policies kids are restricted from taking classes on weekends and on holidays so I am sitting here writing on a Saturday morning with a full night’s sleep which used to be rare.
Another bonus was that our recent 9th wedding anniversary trip to Bacalar, Mexico and San Pedro, Belize was uninterrupted due to the fact that VIPKID was forced to cancel all classes for the remainder of the summer vacation which conveniently fell exactly on the time we were on vacation.
So… I am finally getting some much needed sleep. The luggage underneath my eyes is slowly started to unpack and I have energy to write again. I plan on staying on until the very end with the Chinese students and I am still teaching 5 days a week in the mornings (which is after school in China). It’s so nice to have my weekends back!
So how do we fill in the absences of funds in our bank account?
Throughout our journey with Native Nomads we have always strived to have multiple sources of income to keep this travel lifestyle afloat. Youtube, documentary work, client work and web design, etc. We have some big things around the corner in terms of projects and I am really excited to now be able to contribute more energy to those projects. I have also started to dive deeper into a great digital nomad job of web development, design and IT support. If you are in need of these services and want to support us head over to www.nategoodluck.com.
Gratitude
I want to end with my gratitude for VIPKID. It was my first location independent job and I never thought it would have been as rewarding as it was. I hope for a bright future for the company and for the thousands of teachers that used the platform to benefit their lives. Also I hope for the best for the thousands of kids in China that will hopefully with the new policies get a little break from learning and have some time to go have a little fun.
In the end I hope it was a mutually rewarding experience for all of the kids who I taught. Who knows, maybe our paths will even cross again one day.
