Some interesting replies to the OP, ranging from accusations of racism to sour grapes to agreement with what he had to say. So I thought I would also respond and contribute my 2c worth. I did get the job I applied for, and I worked at SJC for 2 years. Also I am not a racist so I dont feel my qualified opinion can be dismissed or ignored on either grounds.
IMHO, however bad you think it is at SJC from the posts in here, trust me on this, the reality is worse. I spent 2 years trying to make allowances for the management and often trying to calm down other teachers who had been taken to the brink. The turnover in good teachers is disastrous.
In the end however, I concluded sadly that it was only the foreign teachers who were trying to give the students a good education. The school and its management give every indication of not actually caring. Much of the management time was taken up with power games and the politics of ascendancy. In short they appeared always to be wanting to prove 'who is the boss', with teachers for whom the issue was never in doubt and who simply wanted to get on and do a good job. As one example among many of this, Srs X and Y used to quite like turning the lift off, thereby obliging foreign teachers (yes, many of the Thai teachers had lift keys), to walk up between 4 and 6 floors every time they left the ELP building. Control-freakery at its very best, and even the 2 teachers with a leg infection (1) and severe tendonitis (1) were unable to get a break. Oddly enough, even students were forbidden to use the lift between opening and closing of the school, even though the parents were reportedly charged a surcharge for its installation and running costs! As indeed were they charged for the unequipped science labs.
Sister Z (the ELP program head) is frankly incompetent by any measure of the word, and is almost single-handedly responsible for the attrition of good teachers staff that the OP mentioned. This is despite having S to ride shotgun. S was probably the most competent member of admin staff (also a Phillipino and who was pretty efficient on covering up many of Sr Zs blunders). Sister Boss (the principle) is frankly either unable or unwilling to keep Sr Z on the straight and narrow pathway to providing a good education. They are both the butt of ridicule and detestation by most of the students and I doubt that either one would get a job of any description in a country where education is valued. They seem to do quite well in Thailand though...
Sister Zis a Phillipino. She is not incompetent by reason of her race, but for the fact that she is just incompetent. In my humble opinion, she is also grumpy, vindictive and frankly not a very nice person.
Regrettably the Thai teachers in the ELP were the dregs from the Thai section of the school. Those who either could not get on with their colleagues or whose own education was poor were invariably dumped on the ELP. One foreign home room teacher was astonished to hear a Thai teacher state to students that the animal that lays the biggest egg in the world is the Blue Whale. Enough said I think.
I left when I could stand no more, and I lasted longer than many very able colleagues. I could not recommend this school; it is a joke and shall certainly never darken their door again. I shall be much the happier for not doing so.
The first year of National Exams for SJC ELP is 2007 (March). I am convinced it will be a catastrophe and that is a great shame because ultimately the people to pay the price for mismanagement at the school will be the students.
Yanqui
Topic: Saint Joseph Convent School (Read 3201 times)