I am an English teacher from Ireland and I started working at International school Mandalay (ISM) on the 1st of January and I will be leaving the school in a few days.

My time here has been hell to say the least. Phyu Phyu (Helen) has been an incompetent, ineffective manager and she lies and bullies to get what she wants. She is always quick to take advantage and exploit others. To validate my claims, the school has been open for less than a year and she has lost 100% of her staff for the reason that she is so awful to work for.

The teachers live on campus and we are monitored by CCTV 24/7. Helens mother would often come into our office and snoop around our desks. She also has spies, so when I went out around Mandalay, she has spies to report back on my activities. She spreads gossip about her staff without any proof or confirmation. One example being that on this one occasion when I got off of a motorbike taxi and she spread the roumer that I was wreck less and that I got onto motorbikes with random men.

The school equipment is shoddy to put it mildly yet she consistently blames the teachers for computers not working etc. She went behind my back on several occasions accusing me of not being able to work computers efficiently, which again is a complete lie and unfounded as I have been operating computers for years. It came to light later on that her computers are old and they broke by themselves.

She treats the local teachers like dogs, she consistently increases their workload without any extra pay. She keeps their passports and ID cards, if they want to leave and they give her a months notice, she takes 60 dollars out of their 80 dollar salary. This is unacceptable. She also stole one employee's ID card when she said that she wanted to leave, she then claimed that she lost it.

When I and my colleagues said that we were leaving to go to a different school in Mandalay, she decided to get revenge on me by sending me on a one way ticket to Bangkok for my visa run. This was all done with 12 hours notice. Keep in mind that I am a million miles away from home and I was faced with being thrown out last minute with no where to go. The principle (Susie Cooper) stood up for me and in retaliation she fired her. She reluctantly allowed me to come back after I threatened her with a law suit.

She is a pathological liar and a manipulator. She lies so often that she believes her own lies, even when she is caught red handed as she so often is, she is adamant that she is telling the truth.

She constantly tries to turn her staff against each other. She bad mouths us to each other in a bid to cause a rift between us. She told me the principle was doing a terrible job (which could not be further from the truth) and when I told the principle what she had aid, Helen came racing into my office and started screaming at me in front of everyone. She has done this on several occasions.

When I explained to her what my problems were, she accused me of getting it all wrong in my head and misunderstanding he. She lied about spying on me and watching us constantly on the CCTV even though we had conclusive evidence that she had. She is simply incapable of admitting truth. If I really got it wrong then that must mean that all of her staff have also suffered the same misunderstanding in less than a year.

Helen has no empathy for her staff, she has never been a teacher and knows nothing about what the job entails. She never gave us one word of appreciation or asked us anything about our classes. When we needed things like, to fix the printer, new computer etc. She made no attempt at delivering. We were literally made to fend for ourselves here. She is obsessed with the parents of the children's views, she succumbs to their every whim, regardless of what is best for the children. She shows absolutely no respect to the teacher.

I am writing this review to forewarn other teachers, I would hate to see others go through what my colleagues and I went through. It was really and truly psychological hell. It is like living with a bully who consistently antagonizes and plays manipulative mind games with you. It is also hard when you are being consistently lied to.

Please stay away from this school and save yourself the torment. I wish somebody could have warned me before I came here.

It is also useful to bare in mind that it is also the lowest paying school in Mandalay. Every other school offers much better benefits.

If you need any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me at my email address above

PLEASE NOTE: Although ISM is affiliated with David Game College London, they have nothing to do with the absurdity, David Game and his colleague Funda have been nothing short of respectable, professional and dignified. It is PHYU PHYU HTUN (HELEN) who has single handedly run this place into the ground due to her incompetence, sociopathic nature, and weak leader ship skills.