Job Discussion Forums

[Josef K]

So this is how it played out ....

I had another job lined up but my new employer couldn't get an expert certificate granted by the PSB in Chengdu. Seems likely that my old one was never cancelled despite my old employer telling me it had been. I asked but they refused to tell me. The director, an indian-australian yes-man with a fake masters degree (M.M), told me I had better take a lot of cash with me to the border because I would be fined.
This took the jam out of my donut!

Everything it seemed was heading to hell in a hand basket. My new job at a high ranking high school was looking shaky and the old school wouldn't answer my calls. My funds were ok but if I got fined? Everything Sammi at IEN did was calculated to cause me as much grief and confusion as possible.
For example, they gave me the transfer letter, gave me my health certificate and my residence card - all useful for changing employers. However, they wouldn't give me my expert certificate or a recommendation letter - necessary for changing employers. I got a recommendation letter with an official stamp from another department at the institute but without the expert certificate or even knowledge of what happened to it I lost the job in Chengdu

Chengdu told me it was likely I was an illegal citizen and should leave the country. I was really worried I would be fined although I took heart from everything I had read online and from a recent court case in Shanghai that ruled that employers could not have a residence permit cancelled without an employees knowledge and consent. I had knowledge of their intent but hadn't granted consent. I was optimistic

So I went to the PSB and after they checked my details told me ... "no problem, you can leave - no fine!" At the airport they didn't even bother to cancel my residence permit, just as another poster had claimed.

The moral is, don't believe them. Don't comply. Don't take any shite
"Do not go quietly into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!"

And the people that perpetrated this misery and stress?
IEN at Minjiang University. They recruit through Shanghai Yucui run by a man called P.N - a shiver in search of a spine as a friend calls him!
The job pays well but for all the grief and nonsense the teachers take what could be an easy gig is not worth the trouble

The problem is with the institute: a two-bit cash cow using a universities name and facilities and run by heavy handed communists that don't speak a lick of English. The place has no regard or respect for foreign teachers (all but the Filipino teachers left at the end of their contracts) and the FAO manipulates, lies and cheats to get what she wants.

Need I mention the systematic cheating that goes on with Chinese teachers handing out copies of the English exam?
My own students, god bless em, asked me why teachers didn't trust them to do well on the exam and confessed that they knew students with copies of the exam. This happened at mid term and at final year.

But the real joke is that most students marks are 'corrected' by the admin department and foreign teachers have to sign forms saying that they made 'mistakes' and these revised scores are the correct ones.
Very few students are allowed to fail.
And despite the fact that most of them cheat anyway most students need to have their scored 'corrected'. We are talking about students who failed their Gaokao btw!

The cheating and the subsequent low motivation to learn is the main reason why the institute, which once boasted connections with a number of Australian universities (and still promotes these connections to students through old advertising posters and information days), lost the opportunity to send second year students to these reputable schools. The students they tried to send (at a supposed IELTS 5 band level) failed their IELTS in Australia and couldn't be enrolled in courses. The schools realised it was all a sham and pulled the plug. The only institute IEN have a connection with now is a regional Melbourne TAFE (NMIT) where students can study a business related degree. This sounds great to parents but its all just marketing spin. Students have no interest in going to an obscure TAFE they want to go to a University in China.

Students have no interest in studying English but they do have an interest in studying business and being CEO'S and M.D's.
But we all know you need deep pockets and lots of envelopes for this not a university degree

[kungfuman]

[Josef K]

Your comment isn't callous and you ARE right, cheating and lying seem to be common place amongst schools in China.

However, my post addressed the issue of ones residence permit and the notion that this could be cancelled without ones knowledge or permission. As such, it's a valid post because schools will continue to lie and connive on this important issue and teachers need to be aware of the experiences of others like myself. Being threatening with a huge fine is stressful and harassing phone calls and emails from people that you once trusted is not nice either. At the end of the day, schools have a lot less power then they would like to admit and teachers have far more rights than we are lead to believe.

[samhouston]

[Josef K]

What do you mean Sam? The FEC is yours to hold and use (for converting currency for example and maybe even for discounts at obscure museums and dodgy zoos. Ok, I made up the last bit but I'm sure its useful in some way!)

Apparently, it says inside the booklet that it is yours to hold on to but many schools seem to 'forget' this. I never saw mine.

At the end of the contract the FEC goes to the school however, if you wish to change employers after beginning a contract or before the FEC expires it can be transfered to the new school. If the old school won't release it, won't cancel it or won't transfer it then the trouble starts. As for why it can't be cancelled and a new one issued, I don't know.
Maybe it depends on the province or security bureau?
Or maybe 2 can't co-exist and the first needs to cancelled before a second can be issued?