SCHOOLS AND RECRUITERS REVIEWS
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Raoul Duke - 2009-06-28
In response to List of good schools? (Japanda)

Japanda,
what you seek is commonly asked for, and something we'd all love to see...but unfortunately doesn't exist, at least not in a form you should ever use.

Are there more bad schools than good in China?
I dunno...maybe. It's a debatable point.
And it's made much more complex by the fact that school environments can be pretty dynamic, and change a lot. Ownership and management change all the time. Sometimes at a good school, the manager will sit down one night with the financial records and realize he could be making a lot more money if he starts ripping people off...making it suddenly a bad school. Sometimes a bad school will tire of the bad press and the recruiting problems and the teacher turnover, and change their practices...making it suddenly a good school. And, of course, it's generally impossible to really know precisely where a given school is in that cycle.

But some of it comes from the fact that teachers who have bad experiences are much more likely to talk about them publicly, than are those who end their contracts happily. It's a shame, but it's the way it is.

You're not going to find any lists you should trust any further than you could throw the Great Wall. What you MAY find, with some research, are credible positive individual reviews of schools, written by teachers who worked there or have close knowledge of the school. You can find a few of those at my site, and I'm sure you can find a few on this site as well. But it'll take research to dig them out; it's not going to come in the convenience of a list.

Most of the lists you'll find, as well as all too many of the individual "positive reviews" actually come from school managers/staff members, recruiters, and other lying weasel scumbags who simply stand to make an economic gain by having your pink tuchus in one of their classrooms, and will say or do anything to make that happen...at which point you're much more at their mercy.

The best I can tell you is to get online, do that research, read those reviews, and learn to ask the hard questions. I strongly recommend that anyone considering an offer from a school try to get e-mail contacts from FORMER employees at the school. CURRENT employees are no good- they may have a gun to their heads, or they may be in bed (sometimes literally) with the management, or they may have just not been around long enough yet to see the hammer really fall. Most schools that aren't newly-opened should be able to give you some contacts; refusal of this request should be taken as a bad sign.

Never get "desperate" to come to China. Take your time, find the good job, and then head over here.

Oh...and never use a recruiter. ANY recruiter, for any reason, at any time. Don't even return their e-mails; just don't go there. They can be VERY bad news.

Your request is reasonable. A lot of people thinking of coming to China see all the bad press, and seek a relatively risk-free method of selecting a job. Well, I've been swimming these murky, fetid, scummy waters a long time now...and I can tell you that this business just doesn't work that way here. You can arm yourself with some information, and maybe avoid the worst of the worst, but at some point it comes down to payin' yer money and takin' yer chances.
Do the research, seek objective advice, read contracts carefully...and pray.

Raoul

Messages In This Thread
List of good schools? -- Japanda -- 2009-06-27
Re: List of good schools? -- Kevin -- 2009-08-10
Re: List of good schools? -- earthlng -- 2009-07-01
Re: List of good schools? -- Jerome -- 2009-07-01
Re: List of good schools? -- Turino -- 2009-07-01
Re: List of good schools? -- HireEd -- 2009-07-01
Re: List of schools to AVOID -- HireEd -- 2009-07-01
Re: List of good schools? -- Turino -- 2009-06-30
Re: List of good schools? -- Dragonized -- 2009-06-30
Re: List of good schools? -- Raoul Duke -- 2009-06-28
Re: List of good schools? -- Raoul Duke -- 2009-06-28
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