Compared to other schools in China I suppose you could do worse than Shane Kunming and comparatively it’s not too bad so I would just like to put forward a personal analysis for any teachers looking at this school as a potential employer.

To begin I would like to speak about the administration of the school. Unfortunately incompetence abounds and honesty and empathy are nowhere to be seen. Teachers are considered to be commodities to be used at their discretion. The admin is awash with young Chinese that have had little or no administrative experience whatsoever and this is due to the owner’s inherent need to pay the least money possible to these employees and thus he has a high staff turn around and no real consistency within this department. Peanuts and monkeys and all that.

Unfortunately this filters down to our classrooms where youngsters are employed with the promise of being exposed to foreigners while we are set with the burden of on the job training with no acknowledgement thereof. Considering the high staff turn-around this becomes somewhat of an issue and takes away from our supposed purpose of teaching. These teaching assistants, with little or no experience, are then set about the task of assessing the teachers and advised by the owner to be as critical as possible which is a little disconcerting.

The contract is something worth considering as well. At first glance it’s pretty fair and the pay is pretty good for a Chinese school. As with many schools, teachers are paid for contact hours and required to sacrifice additional admin hours which are not paid for. The catch here though is that any assigned admin hours not completed are deducted from the salary at the contact hour’s rate. Also any time off other than the 2 days off per week are considered standby time and once again are not paid which leaves any moment open to a call to come in at their discretion for whatever arbitrary task they feel like assigning. Paid vacation is limited to 22 days a year and doesn’t sound bad but is in fact inclusive of public holidays which usually amount to 9 or 10 days a year leaving a paltry 11 or 12 days per annum. Unpaid leave is at the discretion of the admin and subject to inequality as these decisions are generally made on the basis of relationships as opposed to professional discretion. When compared with public schools’ 2 or 3 months of paid leave this becomes quite laughable.

The school itself was built by the previous Director of studies who only recently left, to the detriment of the school, as he was able to balance the educational side of the school with the financial side. Since his departure though the focus has become entirely financial and this doesn’t sit well with those of us who are trying to educate. The majority of the educational materials are older than most of the students that attend Shane and currently the school is trying to implement a new syllabus but doesn’t have the insight to realize it will require an entire over hall of the IT systems as they stand. Basically there is little to no foresight due to incompetence at the highest levels.

Overall it certainly isn’t the worst of the lot but certainly has its quirks. If you’re looking for a short term contract and don’t mind being commoditized, Shane is feasible. If not, well ………