Job Discussion Forums

[Weter Poolley]

I worked at SESP in Baish in the first year of the program......Can any teacher who is presently there give an update on the status of the program? The little I have heard recently has not been positive.

[Sheik Yerbuti]

Love the moniker WP!

Certainly a good topic, though I am afraid you may not
get much in the way of new information. They have been
retaining ESL staff based on cowardice alone, and all
teachers there are in full lock down , with heads down,
waiting for the inevitable as enrollment has been slashed
and recriminations have certainly begun. I left there
in 2014, and am still in proximity so I get some reports
when I see the guys at local eateries. By the way,
this situation has impact as well for the unfortunate
trainees, many of whom have already been let go by
the big company soon after completing their 2 plus
years of "training."

[Balzac]

Yes, I can confirm what's said below,

[laughingalltheway]

SESP Baish is in big trouble. Students are saying it is closing. Why doesn't someone just say the truth about the future of the place?

No new SESP schools are being constructed. Lips are sealed about the future of the place. I wonder if Riyadh and the eastern province schools are more secure since they have new students don't they?

Yes, let's have more people talk about SESP. That place is real unique. Lots of people here know about them.

People are now confronting their great leader aren't they?

[Sheik Yerbuti]

"That place is real unique"

Or "this" place? I hope your co-workers who are actually there
do share more. But I think they are weasels. And I know they read this.
SESP Baish has had five HOD's in three years, one month. What does that say?

[Weter Poolley]

Is it true there is a teacher in mediation with the Labor Board?

[laughingalltheway]

Weter, yes they sure do. And teachers going to complain about missing this and missing that. Yet the place is going out of business.

[Sheik Yerbuti]

Has been going down hill since that group of teachers
were accused of selling exams to students. Ya right, you
need to do that when salary is 22,000 SAR a month. This
was a very well-resourced operation from the start. And, well....

[metarob]

I was a teacher there last year. It is true about HOD situation. The HOD that began last year......that's a story for another time. It was complete mayhem. A trainee had broken into the school by climbing over the wall at 3am. He almost burned the place down when he destroyed a CCTV camera. Of course the sprinkler system didn't work. No proper record keeping on grades. Attendance was doctored, and SESP was using this "data" to kick out some trainees. Then a teacher was caught outside the housing drunk, running from the police. He is still on the payroll!! They cancelled the December vacation, which created a panic. So they reinstated it the day before. Then a teacher did a long stint in the pokey, I never did get the whole scoop on that, but something he had mailed in from outside. His fault. SESP let him rot in jail for that. When he was finally released he was lambasted by management at a group meeting, then returned to South Africa. So they will leave you behind! (unlike the Greeks and the Marines.)

Then they waited til the last few days to determine retention, and shorted the teachers who were not returning, as is their annual custom. The students had been saying for weeks that SESP was going to close , or big cuts in enrollment coming. Senior management was the only one surprised when it actually happened.

By June everyone was sick of that small, dusty place and they just want to leave, allowing Pooley to do/ take what he wants with their out money. I would rather be ripped off by the Chinese.

[jkazz7]

I worked at SESP in the first year (only) on the TB (Technical Bridging) side. We didn't have any resources; the 5 of us in the TB group at the time had to create all of it...

The "team leader" (I think that was the title) brought in halfway through the first year was from New Zealand. He was a rather cantankerous fellow and turned a lot of the teachers off. The DOH on the English side was nice enough, but I didn't report in to his group so I don't know much about him as a leader. The TB side didn't have a DOH until a South African fellow came in toward the end of the year. He had a decent blend of experience for his job and was generally well liked. He wasn't too happy with some of the directives from the New Zealander, though...

I thought we had some good teachers in the first year although a couple of them left during the year. I had also worked with a few of the teachers before (in the Kingdom) and they were pretty good, too.

The salary in Year 1 was 25,000 SAR. I don't know what it is now, but I assume it's been reduced which seems to be common at some places in the Sand Castle (KSA).

I'm not aware of anyone being "shorted" of their final month's salary or any other extras due to them at the end of the contract - at least in Year 1. I was paid fully and even had one of the Saudi staff take over the lease on my Ford Edge (which saved me some money) - it was the fellow who was the #2 Saudi on staff at the time....can't remember his name, but he was a decent enough chap. His father is an important judge in the Abha region...So if any of you still work there at the moment, the black Ford Edge was mine - a rather nice vehicle in which I got piles of speeding tickets in very short order....There were only a few of us who didn't return for the 2nd year. There were 1 or 2 teachers who weren't offered a second-year contract; I believe everyone else was offered the opportunity to return.

SESP could be a high quality institution with solid leadership (Saudi and Western). The concept was a much needed one. Unfortunately, throwing money at a concept doesn't deliver results; you need to include intelligence and productivity with a good concept....

[spanglish]

Interesting to read the feedback. I heard fairly good things about pay and work conditions from a couple of the teachers who were there recently. Granted, one of them was coming from an all-around awful situation, so maybe it was in part the comparison.

[laughingalltheway]

They were terminating senior employees while hiring new people. SESP Baish has no new students coming. Management is trying to reinvent the place.

[Sheik Yerbuti]

SESP opened the Baish school first, followed by Juhayamah in
Qatif province, EP , then a small SESP campus in Riyadh.
Baish went from being the "flagship" to the red-headed moron
in the attic in less than two years.

[Randall]

I can cast a bit of light on what is going on there. I have never worked in Baish, but know some teachers who have, and we stay in touch. Yes, there is an EFL teacher in the Labour Court in Jizan. We were friends many years ago in Jeddah. He taught at SESP Baish for three years, so he had history there, and was not afraid to speak his mind. He was offered for re-contract in late May, and then had that re-contracting ‘vacated’ just before the teachers left in June. Four teachers, including him, were told (in a group meeting) they would not in fact be retained. Names were read: you four are out the others can stay. This was orchestrated by HR head (Yank) who then referred to all EFL teachers at SESP as ‘surplus.’ My friend was allowed to do exit/ re-entry in July, returned in August, and has been going through the process at Labour Ministry since that time. He feels his treatment by management was ‘personal’ not based on a proper assessment of evaluations and other criteria. Actually no criteria were given for how the four that were OUT were chosen, and the others kept, including teachers on probation who were retained. This teacher was also part of a group of five teachers that were accused by the same HR of selling exams to students the previous school year. So it is a mess. I personally think remaining in country and ‘fighting City Hall’ is a fool's errand, but you would have to know this chap: He’s like a dog with a bone.

[spanglish]