JET holidays?

I've heard from my friend that in the school year there is a six week holiday, if I apply for the JET program, will I be paid for these six weeks like in the UK or not?

I've heard from my friend that in the school year there is a six week holiday, if I apply for the JET program, will I be paid for these six weeks like in the UK or not?

Assistant Language Teachers don't get off the same holidays as students. You get off on Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, a few years over New Year and 20 days of paid holidays at your choice.

These were the conditions my friend worked under in the JET Program.

Thank You for your reply, but what do the ALT do over the student's six week holiday?

My friend told me that he used to sit in the office without any task during most of the summer holidays.

So you still get payed, though?

Sounds boring, but if you're payed... better than nothing.

You still get paid while your students have holiday, but as was mentioned, it will be likely that you will be required to sit at school.

Sometimes, you can help out with language camps sponsored by the local schools or education departments, and sometimes you can go home but be "on call".

What you do during the holidays will depend a lot on whether you're working for the prefectural board of education (BOE) or an individual town/city BOE. I was on the JET programme for three years and the town/city ALTs had it a lot better than the prefectural ALTs. Even among the town/city ALTs, there was a lot of variety too.

Town/City ALTs have more opportunities to negotiate contract items like what they're allowed to do during vacation time. I was lucky in my situation that my BOE allowed me to travel during the holidays in Japan. If I traveled inside Japan, I was NOT required to use my paid vacation time. If I traveled outside of Japan, I had to use my paid vacation time. Again, this was something that my BOE and I agreed upon. A lot of thanks goes to my open-minded supervisor who saw the JET programme as a chance for me to learn more about Japan, not just for my students to learn English. Prefectural ALTs, who work at senior high schools, generally don't have this flexibility to negotiate their contracts.

Other town/city ALTs in my prefecture had different agreements. One was allowed to go study the Japanese language without having to take paid vacation time. He went to a language school in Hokkaido the first summer and one in Okinawa the next. Another town/city ALT was told to join the volleyball practices. He practiced with them every morning until lunch and then was allowed to go home along with the students. Another ALT taught English lessons in the morning at a nearby seniors centre. A small number of town/city ALTs, however, like their prefectural counterparts, went to school every day without much work to do.

Chan Kanobe,

Your reply was very accurate and helpful, so thank you. You sound like you had a good arrangement with your ABO.

BOE, sorry. Not ABO