Job Discussion Forums

[bradleycooper]

There are actually now 3 TBI schools which have folded in the past 2 or so years.

1) TBI Semarang
2) TBI Cengkareng
3) TBI Malang (the original school closed for 8 months after the joint venture partner broke the contract with them due to "unethical and unprofessional practices" but it has now re-opened in a much smaller building. It is, however, now a small school which does not employ Native Speakers at all).

Here is the link to the former TBI Cengkareng (which went bankrupt sometime in early 2012). TBI has tried to remove all trace of these failures from the Internet, but this one is still up. There are also some mentions of it on "Foursquare" and so on if you google TBI Cengkareng. TBI has gone to some lengths to claim it is "a leading school" but its franchise system is completely broken.

http://sodastitchindonesia.com/hendy/tbi/

[BekasiWhistle]

The other angle to the TBI bekasi thing is the sexual atmosphere in the school. The owner gives special tickles (his word) to all the office girls which is probably why they leave after their first pay cheque most of the time. One of them went as far as to call him a pervert to me.

Another teacher went on the record last week and said that the owner-manager was watching a lot of hardcore, under-aged porn within the school. The url of his computer was allways full of stuff like "teenage porn"and "cheerleader g******" etc. He has started writing up his story now too. TBI knows about this creep and his creepy school and they just don't do a thing about it.

[aku_tonpa]

Rob did do an audit visit in 2008 and observed teachers. He also suggested some improvements to binsar e.g. stop outsourcing the photocopying (there was no photocopy machine on site). Besides that, Head Office were nowhere to be seen.

[bradleycooper]

[princesss]

The way this school has responded to these allegations is a scandal in itself. Every time a teacher comes forward from TBI Bekasi and says they were lied to, didn't get paid in full or were sexually harassed at this school, some anonymous people come online and started saying things like, "Look at how bad your grammar is, you shouldn't have been a teacher in the first place." Or they try and scapegoat the blame on former managers from different schools who never even visited TBI Bekasi. They are a very irresponsible and questionable employer to say the least. Their reputation has really gone down fast in recent years.

[bradleycooper]

The latest news from TBI Kelapa Gading is that they are now onto their 3rd school manager in the last 18 months. Student numbers had collapsed under the last manager for 2012-2013 and he has finally been shown the door. He was appointed without so much as an interview and against the warnings of former colleagues. It is typical of TBI that he was appointed manager despite not even having a TEFL certificate (let alone a CELTA). They were desperate to complete their "Indonesianization" of management plan and this was the last franchise school with an expat in charge. Desperate to get rid of expats, they were happy to put anyone else in charge- even an Indonesian with no relevant qualifications and no management experience. It is a typical TBI debacle.

Typically, they appointed someone without any qualifications for the position and are now mystified why he failed so badly. He has now been replaced as school manager by a former secretary who has no educational background at all and who was studying Pre-Intermediate Cutting Edge just last year at Kuningan! How can this young woman possible manage a school when she has Pre-Intermediate levels of English? Imagine what the emails and so on will be like? Riddled with basic, elementary grammar mistakes, for one thing. There is a race to the bottom in terms of standards at this school chain. The new motto seems to be, "The cheaper the better in terms of wages, but let's charge our students as much as possible."

[princesss]

Is anything these people do surprising by this point? Threatening to murder former teachers because they left after not being paid! Insane. What I will never understand is why TBI keeps this dreadful place open. Don't they realise how much damage is being done to their reputation? It's like they have given up the fight and don't even bother trying to save themselves these days.

[bradleycooper]

[plumpy nut]

[bradleycooper]

[BekasiWhistle]

I'm surprised that the regular TBI representetives haven't come on here and started saying, '"You're all whingers. You're claiming TBI is worse than Nazi Germany. You're all claiming it to be worse than the holocaust.'' Or they claim that we are defaming TBI or some other rot. This is the first time they haven't tried to shut us down.

I know people from many branches and the amount of stuff going on behind closed doors in this company is a scandal. As long as the manager at this school is storing hundreds of young girls names in his blackberry and threatening teachers that he'll get them thrown in prison if they speak out and all the rest I strongly advise everyone to give this whole company a wide miss.

They don't respect teachers. They don't live up to their promises. They have done a lot of damage to a lot of people. They are breaking Indoensian laws every day. Give them a miss.

[SiThep]

Thanks for posting this BekasiWhistle. This bunch sound careless about their company image to say the least.

[BekasiWhistle]

[princesss]

The thing is that some people want to stay in Indonesia so much because of intimate relationships that they will put up with almost anything.

[Tazz]

Could equally say that some people want to keep an old thread alive that they will post almost anything.....