Pinoys in demand as educators in Indonesia

BALI – Filipinos are in demand here as educators and teachers, the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia said.

Ambassador Rosario Aguinaldo said in an interview on the sidelines of the 21st Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that Indonesians see Filipinos as a valuable ally in their quest to improve their English communication skills.

“They want to be good in speaking English, and they have opened several international schools here. And because Filipinos are fluent in speaking the language, they hired a lot of Filipino teachers,” she said.

Aguinaldo said that aside from English, Filipino teachers are recruited to teach Science and Mathematics.

“We have a lot here in Bali, also in Medan and Surabaya, and not just in Jakarta,” she said.

“Perhaps this is our contribution, one big contribution here. And this is on top of the Filipino accountants, auditors who have remained as consultants,” she added.

Aguinaldo said there are around 10,000 Filipinos also work here as financial consultants, directors of hospitals, general managers of hotels and entrepreneurs.

The Philippines is reviewing various bilateral agreements with Indonesia to ensure that projects do not overlap and ensure that the full benefits of each agreement will redound to both countries.

“It is important that we see for ourselves the extent of their implementation, but because they have too many, we can’t implement everything,” she said.

She said trade relations between the two countries are also under review.

“We have had problems bringing in some of our products and we’re working on this now. Among them are bananas, shallots. We’ve had trouble, a little trouble, bringing them in because of the regulations,” she said.