Let's take a closer look at the accusation of disorganization.

There is a certain amount of what could be perceived as disorganization at the start of each academic year at private schools, but this would only be perceived ad a negative by those who don't understand the underlying cause of this apparent disorganization.

For example, for the first couple of weeks of each new academic year, it is not uncommon for students to not have the correct course books, be this because the school has no stock or because their parents haven't purchased them yet. This often leads to teachers or admin staff running about at the start of classes getting photocopies for students. A good teacher will be aware of this problem at the start of the year and hopefully will have preempted the need for copies and made them in advance.

The lack of available course books is not usually the fault of the school, and to claim it is a sign of their disorganization is incorrect. A school might not know until a week or so before classes start the final numbers for each class. The heads will then sit down, talk about the students in each class and decide on the most appropriate course book for that classes needs. Will they be sitting an exam in June? What is thier general maturity level? Will they benefit from a structured book like the Compact or Objective series or be better with a more informal series like Interactive or Gold Experience? Which teacher is taking the group? Do they have a teaching style that fits better with Kids Box or Superminds? When a decision is made based on all of this criterion and more, the books for that class are subsequently ordered from the publisher. Anyone with experience of dealing with publishers knows that they rarely send all course books out together or all components, meaning that there can be a discrepancy when classes start. Which is when good teacher planning comes in. This can appear disorganized, but in reality is due to the small timeframe there is to get more or less final numbers, consider what's best for the class and order the course books. You cannot expect every school to have a stockpile of every course book; YL teen texts outdate incredibly quickly and exam course books update all of the time (2nd edition FCE compact just last month, for example).

So what may seem disorganized is really a school trying to get the best material for both the class an the teacher and the publishers dragging their heels on sending!

Once a course is underway (no matter the book, end goal or country) it is up to the teacher to ensure that they have everything they need and if they don't to notify their department head. A good school will rectify any situation as quickly as possible and help figure a stopgap in the meantime. For example, I am using PET Gold with one class this year, the publisher is yet to send out the workbook audio CD despite daily calls from the head of Adult studies. While we are waiting, my school has provided each student with free alternative listening material from Objective PET. Putting together this material was costly and time consuming for my colleague, but it was done because the class needs audio components they can use at home. So while it may seem disorganized to not have the course audio CD set, it was ordered weeks ago and it's the publisher failing to keep up with demand, not the school's own disorganization.

There are disorganization problems in some places, but this is usually when scheduling is involved and people have different classes week by week. Scheduling can be a nightmare in any field and problems will always arise. That's not to say I am defending the practice; I'm of the opinion that changing classes/teacher week by week is irresponsible and jot in the best interests or the students or the teachers and the practice should be stopped. But for schools with a high turnover of teachers (due to the transient nature of ESL teaching, especially in China, and also the absent teacher issues brought about when tourist-teachers fail to turn up to class because they're too hungover) regular fixed classes are not always an option.

To summarize, to claim all schools are disorganized is a snapshot. You're not really addressing the causes for the disorganization, nor is that disorganization always present due to the schools lack of care, in a lot of cases it is exactly the opposite!

I'm not defending bad schools that are clearly out to make money and don't care about their students or teachers, they're an entirely different kettle of fish and I would be happy to see them all closed immediately. However, not all private schools fall in to that category, and for them deeper analysis is required.