US hiring Pinoy senior citizens as public school teachers

MANILA, Philippines – Instead of going into retirement, many Filipino senior citizens are getting a new lease on life by landing high-paying teaching jobs in the United States.

The local recruitment industry yesterday reported an increasing number of Filipino teachers, including those above 60 years old, employed in various American public schools.

Isidro Rodriguez of the Green Life Care International and Worldgoal Corp. said his agency has deployed to the US at least 20 Filipino senior citizens and 15 others now applying for teaching jobs.

“Age is not really a problem for American employers as long as they can prove that they are able to do their teaching job well,” Rodriguez said.

The oldest they have deployed so far was a 67-year-old teacher.

Sixty-year-old Erlinda Panares, a BS psychology graduate, said she was hired to work as special education teacher for three years at a public school in Virginia and received a monthly pay of $5,700.

Panares is encouraging other Filipinos to work as teachers there because American schools provide not only high pay but also better working conditions for foreign workers.

However, Panares said she opted to return home after four months because she was very homesick.

“If only I have my family around I would continue working there because they have good working conditions,” she said.

According to Rodriguez, the only challenge in deploying Filipino senior citizens is that they could not stay for more than a year because of homesickness.

“It’s a challenge but I am not discouraged to deploy senior citizens because for them it’s not the pay that is really important but that they were able to prove that despite their age they can still teach young people,” he explained.

Even for young teachers, Rodriguez said employment opportunities in the US are very bright. “The recruitment of teachers for deployment in various states in America is now a big business, in fact, even bigger than that of nurses.”

Meanwhile, Rodriguez belied reports that he is into illegal recruitment and human trafficking activities.

Contrary to television reports, Rodriguez said, he has a license from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and all those he deployed have permanent jobs.

“There are few instances that a worker would have to wait for a month after arrival before he or she could work but all those I have deployed are now employed,” he said.