Editorials

Faced with a critical shortage of teachers for English as a Second Language classes, adult schools throughout the East Bay are holding a job fair tonight, from 7 to 8:30, at the Contra Costa County Office of Education, 77 Santa Barbara Rd., Pleasant Hill. 

“The students are just bulging through the walls, we have so many people taking our ESL classes,” said Kay Wade, evening ESL coordinator at Berkeley Adult School on University Avenue. 

Wade said the Berkeley Adult School has seen its ESL enrollment grow from about 1,000 students a day last year to about 1,500 students a day this year.  

The school’s 40 ESL teachers have to teach classes of 45 adults or more in classrooms designed for junior high students, Wade said. 

“Lots of times we don’t even have places for people to sit,” Wade said, explaining that the ideal ESL class size would be in the 25 to 30 student range. 

Applicants for ESL teaching jobs must have completed a master’s program to become credentialed ESL teachers, Wade said.  

A specialist will be on hand tonight to tell interested people how to obtain credentials, she said. 

Most ESL teaching positions are part time, Wade said.  

Berkeley ESL students are from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America, among other places, Wade said. Many are UC Berkeley staff or their spouses, she said. 

“It’s just a fabulous job,” Wade said. “It’s like visiting another country without having to leave home.”  

To get to the Contra Costa County Office of Education from Berkeley take Highway 24 east to the Pleasant Hill Road exit. Travel north on Pleasant Hill Road and then veer right onto Geary Road. Take Geary Road to Monte Cresta Road and turn left.  

For more information on the job fair, call Kay Wade at  

644-6130.