I know there are other posts on this site about this school but what I am going to tell you have all happened during the 2011-2012 school year. This place is such a nightmare I don’t even know where to begin….

The school is not in Nanchang as they will tell you. You must take two buses to get into the city which will take about an hour if you’re lucky. Also the mini buses which run from outside the school to the closest town stop working at 9pm so after that you haven’t a hope of leaving as there is no taxis working in the area.

If you take a taxi back to the campus the security guards refuse to let the taxi driver enter just to fuck with the foreign teachers. The foreign teacher’s apartments are at the very back of the campus, at least 1.5km away. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or if you have ten shopping bags with you, they still don’t care. The worst part is when it’s a Chinese teacher there’s no problem with the taxi’s going on campus. The taxi drivers simply leave their ID’s at the gate and collect them on the way back out. We’ve tried discussing this with the FAO office but they couldn’t care less.

One of my American colleagues arrived fresh from the states to be met with a beehive in his washing machine and a DEAD BAT in the kitchen. When he got sick (he believes it was from cleaning up all the bat feces and I believe him) and told the school he needed to visit a doctor or hospital they said “yeah ok, in two or three days we take you.”

Another colleague was injured on campus while cycling his bike. He severely damaged his shoulder and had to get a metal plate inserted. In our contracts it states the school will pay 80% of our medical cost should we have an accident or get ill. While the school did pay the initial costs, a few months later when it came to removing the metal plate the school tried to blackmail him into signing a renewal for another year if he wanted them to pay those costs. I am glad to say he didn’t succumb to the blackmail and simply paid the costs himself.

There is a huge problem with the Pakistani students that study here. They have caused a lot of trouble with the Chinese students, the other foreign students (mostly African) and the foreign teachers. Due to the large number of them they purposefully create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation directed at all non-Pakistanis. On one occasion up to 15 of them were attacking an African student outside the foreign teacher’s apartments. When one of the teachers intervened to try and stop the attack they turned on him and hit him also. Last year a Chinese student was gang raped by a group of them. Instead of them facing punishment all the school was interested in was keeping the matter quiet. They were simply put on the first flight home. The poor Chinese student involved was paid off and transferred to a better school in Shanghai. The incident was mentioned in a local newspaper at the time but it was hushed up pretty quickly.

Anytime there’s a problem and you try to get help nobody wants to know about it. You call one person, he/she tells you to call another person. And so on and on it goes till you just couldn’t be bothered anymore…….

At least once a week the water and electricity will be cut off for hours with no warning. We’ve asked our FAO to at least tell us about it in advance. We get the usual “ok ok” but it’s like talking to the wall.

Over the last 5 years only one teacher has ever renewed his contract here. He’s a Filipino guy and is obviously happy to let the school walk all over him. No other foreigner would be crazy enough to accept the treatment foreign teachers receive. One teacher went home at Christmas and just didn’t bother coming back. I think she was suffering from depression by the time she left.

The above are just some of the more serious problems. There is many more I could take about such as refusing to open the gate if we return home after 11oclock. Nothing being fixed when its broke, the schedule being non-existent and the general terrible conditions of the teacher’s apartments. But I think you get the picture……..

Sorry for the long post and also if you see this post on other sites. But I believe when teachers health and safety are being put in danger then it is my duty and all other EFL teachers working here in China to warn each other about these types of places.