Clearly many former teachers don't like this school. I can undertand the sentiment. I've worked at KISQ also.

The details about how management doesn't follow logic, I can completely attest to.

Plans get formed, western teachers are asked for planning and being apart of all school events (both during and after school hours) for no additional pay.

True, all true. However, they didn't add that each event is accompanied with a free T-shirt, or sweatshirt, food, or other treats.

KISQ opperates more like a family, and less like a school...good and bad in different ways.

The administration and Korean teachers are hired on a buddy-system (ie. not qualified for their jobs, just friends with the CEO).

That makes working there very aggrivating to be bossed around by incompetent fools on an ego trip...but that's most Koreans for you anyway.

The kids are mostly great, poor victims of the way this school is run. Teachers, are like Nazi soldiers, doing what they are told..or else, meanwhile they even they think most of what happens makes no sense at all. Even the teachers feel sorry for the kids being unable to get properly educated due to all the overly ambitious activities made to make the school look prestigious; meanwhile taking away from classroom time, but hey...the kids get a flimsy certificate afterwards. And the MOST IMPORTANT TEACHER DUTY is the student profile...which means making an academic resume for each student to increase their chances to get into Seoul University. This "duty" as they keep telling western teachers over and over, is soooo important that they can work on them for weeks during their classes... meaning going through stacks of certificates and typing in English to fill out each and every student's former activities (all homeroom teachers MUST do this).

It's even more important than actually teaching or keeping grades....WEll...haha! Grades...that's another story.

I heard this year there is a new grading system...now they hired a staff of 5 people to collect all homework, classwork, quizzes and tests from all teachers for the middle and high school. All scores are entered by these 5 people, the teachers are only to give the papers and not keep record of their scores. "Supposedly" this was meant to lighten the burden on the teachers, but everyone knows it is so the scores can be manipulated even further. When I was there, it didn't matter if my students legitamately had F's....their grades got changed to miraculous C's or B's if their parents came to visit the school. I hear the new system has caused and uproar among staff, students, and parents since almost every student's grades are different than what the teachers told them they should be. (because teachers didn't follow the rules, they kept their own records to be safe - because plans always change at KISQ) Anyway, the grading differeces are so extreme that one kid was told by the teacher he had an (A), but his report card showed (F). Mistyping, assigning marks to the wrong classes, this is what the grading department has been doing. Yes, it is a new system, so they argue that they just need time to make all the corrections.

Try giving that job back to the teachers, and just use printouts from them to make report cards with, right???? No! That would make too much sense!

Too much to list what is wrong with KISQ. My former students used to complain to me that they didn't want to be there, but it was the cheapest Korean school their parents could afford to send them to. Unfortunately, every school event requires thier parents to dole out more money...milking their parents for all they are worth. The school appears severly neglected, unpainted walls...broken desks and chairs, not enough seating for students. The lunchroom is a joke! 6 Chinese workers making food for the entire school, managed by a Chinese-speaking Korean tyrant who barks orders so loud it makes for an uncomfortable atmosphere. Not to mention when middle and high school kids run to the lunchroom only to crowd and narrow door and fight for where to sit on one of the ratty and falling apart kindergarden sized stools.

I could add more vivid detail and go on and on about the things that western teachers and even the Korean students hate about KISQ, but it doesn't matter.

Nothing changes. Nothing will change..except the outside of the school to attract more suckers. Yeah, a student's parents donated money almost 1/2 a million in RMB for them to have a new soccer field...priorities priorities..they just don't have them. Lacking books..severly lacking books. When I was there, they had books that were already 6 years old, and had to make copied books for students each year. Then the students had to pay for copied books...ehhmm, so what was their tuition good for? They even have to pay lunch separately...so??? I digress.

Point is, if KISQ is a front for anything other than sucking money out of Korean parents; and going through western teachers like Klenexes, I never saw it. Mafia??? Puhleezz...this school???? No way!!!

Whoever wrote that ton of garbage was just blowing off steam...where's the proof??? Bags of money?? I only saw that when the entire school raised money for a walkathon for the Red Cross. Even then, the moeny was not in garbage bags. It was collected in envelopes from each teacher and given to the accounting office. I think people should know the facts and not write a bunch of moronic LIES about a school that already has problems. Making up more BS on top of that is just plain wrong. I highly doubt that the owner of KISQ or anyone who works there is in anyway involved with Korean mafia. That takes connections.

The owner didn't even have any connections in the city government nor immigration office to help teachers resolve visa issues. It's not only do they want to get out of any cost, but nobody in that school has the connections to know who to call to solve problems. They are only good at making problems, not solving them. And all real problems must be solved on your own. They will act all sympathetic if you have to take off for cancer treatments, but while you are gone they are planning to make you do all this extra work when you return or threaten to fire you if you don't want to do it. If you have to miss a day or two for a cold, you better get a doctor's note, and return to school with medicine. But when they want you to cover classes, you should do it free of charge. And don't expect someone to return the favor unless you made real friends with other western teachers and trade amongst them.

Good luck...it really does pay well to work at KISQ. They haven't had the payment problem for a couple of years now.

Teachers have the choice of getting direct deposits or paid in cash. Taxes are taken out like they should, and get paid monthly ontime.

Holiday pay is given as promised...no lie! Now they have almost 12 weeks of paid vacation given within the first year if you renew contracts with them.

Sometimes, I wish I had that again, but I don't miss all the headaches.