First things first, I’m going to name names here. The worst school that I have ever worked for is Aitong Kindergarten. I’m not going to beat around the bush here, this school is dodgy with a capital D!! They, as yet, have no idea how to offer foriegn teachers a stable and fair work environment. Lacking in any oraganisation ability they instead resort to trying to control, bully and blackmail a teacher into submission.
Once they have you on contract they will exploit every loop hole in there to get more out of you. If you are planning to work there I seriously advise you to not do it, if you are going to do it, look seriously at the contract.
- Ask about travel time.
- If a bus that is supposed to turn up doesn’t, do they pay for your taxi?
- If they give you overtime is it compulsory or optional? If you don’t do it will they fine you? Because they want to, they really want to.
- If they make a mistake about scheduling, it changes every day / week and without any notice, do you get fined?
- Holidays, if you give notice will you get any?
- If they call you with 5 minutes before a class and want you to come in now, can you tell them to fuck off?
- Most importantly get all of this in writing, in the contract. Clear up the loopholes, cause they are gaping!
It’s not just me, other people have been cheated, lied to and abused by this sham of a school. Apart from cheating me out of 3,000RMB, they have also cheated other teachers out of apartments, visas and flight tickets. I know of one occassion that the Canadian Embassy has been called to deal with them. I myself called the Irish Embassy on one occassion.
Bud, I taught at the exact same school you are talking about. I worked there from the summer of 2003 – 2004. My last month was complete hell for me. I actually had to call the Canadian Embassy to get after the boss for my last paycheck.
I lived with a guy from Australia for the year too, even when I was told I would be living alone. It all worked out there because me and Andrew got along great, and we still talk after all these years via email, but it was yet another lie. I was shafted my last month’s paycheck, my apartment was entered while I was not home, and my stuff looked through (they were trying to get my plane ticket home back from me). Luckily I had such valuables locked away in a drawer that only I had a key to.
Working at this school is a mistake for anyone, this is true. But from working there, I made great friends, and still loved my job. I can imagine how much better of an experience I would have had, had I been in a better run school.
I hope you get to see this message, and write back to me. I’d love to hear some of your stories.
Comment by J. Wiley — July 23, 2007 @ 7:16 pm