Ningbo Beilun High School-

I am a former teacher at Ningbo Beilun High School. I was employed by the ‘ SINO-US ( GAC/ACT ) program ‘for a year and a half. This initiative was managed by Grace ( (chenlei_grace@163.com). She was the head administrator and face of the program.

The factual information I provide below are events that transpired over my time employed by the department. As I give no opinions and only facts, please feel free to draw your own conclusions from the content given.

Just a reminder that the facts I present are only to indicate what occurred as being employed by the ‘ SINO-US ( GAC/ACT ) program ‘ and are in no way a reflection of the Chinese section of Ningbo Beilun High School, which by all accounts has a solid reputation.

These are some of the situations I encountered or witnessed during my employment with the ‘ SINO-US ( GAC/ACT ) program ‘-

1) Illegally hiring foreign teachers- Teachers were arriving for work in China on L-Tourist Visas as opposed to Z-Work Visas. This was often done before and is still being done now. Don’t forget that this act can result in financial penalty to you and in some cases, deportation.

2) High numbers of staff turnover- Even though most if not all staff were hired for year contracts, 33% or higher of the 20 or more teachers over the last few years- left of their own volition or were asked to leave before the end of the contract. Some stayed a week, 1 month, 2 months or longer- but very few managed to work longer than a year. A few even did the ‘ Midnight Run’.

3) Not honoring/manipulating the contract- This was something that I personally witnessed where my contract teaching hours weren’t honored by the employer. I’ve also witnessed times where other teachers were given an initial contract to sign only to sign another contract shortly thereafter with intentional changes made to the contract, without informing the signer. Another occurrence involved all teachers witnessing late pay on more than one occasion with little/no notice.

4) Being asked to impersonate someone else- This was something that I personally experienced and another teacher as well at various functions not affiliated with our program. This might be interpreted as unethical/illegal.

5) Being asked to inflate marks/accept plagiarism- We were sometimes asked to add marks to final scores and ignore plagiarism. Our students were applying to foreign universities.

There are probably other incidents that I witnessed during my employment with that department, but these are the main situations I observed directly/indirectly.

Please feel free to view the school website http://www.blzx.net.cn/ to obtain more facts about the ‘ SINO-US ( GAC/ACT ) program ‘ or search Ningbo Beilun High School.

Again, from the information given, please draw your own conclusions about the program.

Good luck in future job searches. Also please remember to research the schools and ask to speak to past/current foreign teachers.