Beijing New Oriental Foreign Language School is now officially blacklisted.

Came across an article recently exposing the possible contributing causes of why this should be so. The name of the author and the date was withheld, but I think it was written by someone well connected with the BNOFLS organization itself. This article, and others like it, have appeared in a number of newspapers in China and the U.S., and expose the unethical and immoral practices of BNOFLS.

Allow me to quote the more interesting lines from this article detailing why the E.T.S. is now forced to (rather unfairly) scrutinize the exam results of all Chinese students entering U.S. universities, especially those from BNOFLS which it has a major problem with.

"Mr [--] rewrites an application for a Chinese student seeking admission to an American university, he gets 1,000 yuan, or $120."

"Mr [---] and about 20 other writers are paid by the New Oriental School, a private Chinese institution, which in turn charges students $500 to $1,000 -- a substantial sum in China -- to have their personal statements, resumes, and letters of recommendation doctored."

"... with its no holds-barred approach to getting students placed abroad, the New Oriental School, which is most famous here for its test-preparation courses, seems to epitomize a countrywide pattern of practices that clash with Western educational values."

"... the use of stand-ins, even students who try to play by the rules, are likely to have taken graduate test-preparation courses at the New Oriental School."

"Every day, several messages appear on the New Oriental School's electronic bulletin board with titles like "searching for a male TOEFL gunner [someone who is paid to take an entrance exam in place of the real candidate]." One recent message from a person identified only as "[---]" inquired about a "female GMAT expert" and offered payment of $1,200 for a score above 750 -- well above the average at the top American business schools."

"Three of the biggest companies in the ghostwriting business, including the New Oriental School, rewrote about 1,000 applications this admissions season."

"New Oriental doesn't care too much about its teachers' English-speaking ability. "The most important quality is not substance," says [---], "but communication: the ability to teach, the ability to entertain, and the ability to inspire." [...] "That is why we don't have native speakers as instructors," [---] says.

"The most significant thing New Oriental does, says [---], a student at Peking University, is distribute sample tests. For years New Oriental, like other Chinese test-preparation schools, has been pirating and selling Educational Testing Service publications."

"Some Chinese students get scores on the verbal section of the exam that are wildly out of proportion to their command of English, as measured by anything other than a multiple-choice test."

"New Oriental seems like a strange gateway to the West. On the one hand, it preaches the value of study abroad; on the other, it sends people to the United States who may not be able to communicate once they arrive."
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These quotes lifted directly from the original article pose many more questions than answers. However, the most interesting point seems to be the one made about New Oriental not caring too much about its English teachers' English-speaking ability [because] "we don't have native speakers as instructors".
Confirms all doubts that cloud the job description of a BNOFLS foreign teacher; specifically, why a BNOFLS foreign teacher is NOT employed to be an instructor. Then again, with exam results doctored as a matter of routine, perhaps its entirely unnecessary to employ a foreign teacher when the there's such a lucrative business of falsifying results that will guarantee places at U.S. universities providing BNOFLS can continue to fool the E.T.S.

Perhaps it doesn't matter that a native speaker is better equipped to teach pronunciation or can help with building listening or vocabulary skills? Perhaps the skills genuinely essential to good English communication provided by good native speakers is not required of a BNOFLS foreign teacher? Or will this threaten to bring to an end the lucrative 'results for cash' business? Perhaps 'entertainers' or 'performing puppets' would be a more appropriate job description for a BNOFLS native English teacher? It would make the visa application process easier and much cheaper too.

And as for the methods BNOFLS uses to have students' exam results 'wildly out of proportion to their command of English', confirms all the personal accounts of doctoring exam results I've heard from past and present BNOFLS's teachers who are ashamed to be a contributing part of this process.