Job Discussion Forums

[Tony Hale]

RUNNER EDUCATION, XIAMEN. BEWARE of this Chinese-managed school!

I am a freelance English teacher and worked at the branch near Xiamen University part-time for six months to May 2004 teaching mainly IELTS. I refused to return because of a pay dispute. But there’s more...

To function as a serious contender to the top Xiamen schools, RUNNER would need to duplicate their business procedures viz. have readiness to learn as the standard for course admission, display curriculum development, use modern and appropriate texts, set sensible minimum class sizes, obtain commitment from students through early fee collection, hire a pool of full-time ex-pat professional language teachers, build statutory holidays and external exams into the teaching schedule and basically give staff communication high priority. Not to mention teacher payment on time, without hassle.

Placing this challenge in the too hard round file, RUNNER has instead
capitulated to student pressure. Trolling for its clientele among mainly
university students, it operates on small classes and slim margins. Students then pay on an as-they-attend basis. This combination makes classes and courses vulnerable to cancellation should numbers drop. Reasons for my lost classes included: students having parties or too tired or both; too many other expenses that week; external exams not previously revealed to the school; and course toughness. Because fees were collected piecemeal, the financial risk of class cancellation was passed directly to the teachers, RUNNER deftly side stepping its responsibility.

My frequently rescheduled classes played havoc with budgeted income. Sometimes a dud would be phoned through but I left finally because I once arrived on the doorstep to be told only then of the cancellation. Little effort had been put into reaching me and my conclusion was that they just didn’t care. As I had met my responsibility I felt I was due something. But, no, they weren’t interested. Other Xiamen language schools, such as Times, pay 50% in this situation. Foreign teachers at RUNNER are expendable, even at IELTS level.

Predictably, both my successors experienced the same treatment and left.
In the absence of structured placement tests, students are interviewed
informally by the Chinese DOS. On a good day, his English level might brush 2A level. With few students consequently placed correctly, frustrations were bound to set in once true levels became clear in class. Certainly, the objective at IELTS level was to quick start classes without thought to student readiness. Preserving management jobs and pouncing on student fees far outweighed long-term concern for English progress.

RUNNER had no compunction in hiring an IELTS examiner to teach IELTS over the British Council’s explicit ban on this. I complained to the Guangzhou office after losing a class to her and, following investigation, she is no longer examining.

The environment reeks of marginal investment – no teacher room or resource room as all teachers are part-time, and the linoleum-clad floors convert classrooms into world-class echo chambers – “I’m sorry Tony, you’ll just have to shout more clearly”.

I had been offered on arrival an illegally photocopied Chinese text. The
operating procedure was to hire Chinese IELTS teachers (paid at one third my rate) for Reading, Listening and Writing with foreign teachers used only for Speaking. This professional disservice certainly held fees down, but students were sandwiched between teaching methodologies miles apart, leading to not a little confusion. I declined the local text in favour of a modern, international, multi-skilled one, but could make little headway with reconciling the teaching anomaly.

In a later attempt to wrest funds from students who would otherwise probably not study at RUNNER, IELTS candidates were encouraged by the DOS to self-study Reading and Listening with myself handling Speaking and Writing. I was scheduled to pressure cook all of these elements together in the exam's penultimate week. High risk stuff, I can tell you.

A further, inventive recruiting scheme involved not telling students that once the course finished, their English level would decline without daily practice. Hence, students would inform me of examination dates several months further on from course completion! Droopy faces greeted the reality from me.

Having bounced these ideas off other teachers domiciled here longer than my two years, I was intrigued at their response along the line “Don’t worry, RUNNER will be doing the same thing in 10 years!” Sometimes Chinese thinking is so entrenched they just can’t change.

It is some months since I left RUNNER. Upon reflection I consider the content still important enough to post. I recommend in Xiamen other schools I teach at: Times, English First.

This industry does not need cowboy outfits like RUNNER EDUCATION. AVOID.

Tony Hale MA, CELTA
[email protected]
Xiamen, CHINA

[Roger]

So you went along with their scam for as long as it suited you, right? Besides you were working illegally. I get your drift...just because pay didn't live up to your expectations, you make them now pay by trashing their reputation.

[Mister Al]

Roger

No sympathy then for a fellow FT? If the guy feels hard done by, and it certainly sounds like he does, why are you so unsympathetic? You might think he deserved what he got but have a heart for gawd's sake. One of the reasons for this forum's existence is, after all, to allow individuals an opportunity to 'warn' others by way of relating personal experiences or to just have a rant about the way they were treated. The guy seems genuinely aggrieved enough to spend his time writing a long post

You just jumped in and trashed his comments. What's all that about?

BTW, You seem very sure about the legal status of his employment. How come?

[tofuman]

OP,
I appreciate your thoughtful critique of the school from which you disassociated yourself. I wonder why a person with your qualifications (MA, CELTA) would teach at such a place?

If you have your masters degree in church history, cultural anthropology, or some other unemployable (at a decent wage) field, it makes sense. Otherwise, why do any of us work in these situations. I've had difficulty with people where I work, but I have always been paid promptly and decently, the rooms are heated, and the students are manageable.

It sounds like this place had "dog" written all over it. Why be surprised that you were bitten?

[Norman Bethune]

What the OP descibed is the norm for the English Training schools in my backwater. They are businesses after all, designed to make money and please the students and their parents...not the teachers who work for them.

I do a lot of freelance work at such schools in the area where I am. The conditions are much as described in the original post at all of them.

This is China afterall. What Chinese school owner gives a Rat's Class about what the British Council has to say or the Ielts people have to say when there's money to be made from the suckers attending his cowboy school.

[Tony Hale]

Re: RUNNER EDUCATION, Xiamen.

I would like to respond to the above four correspondents.

Firstly, to the young gentleman listing himself as Roger. When work relationships are not as they should be, you obviously try to work them through in-house. If, in time, you deem your efforts wasted, you pull the plug and can go public. Such a process is normal and doesn’t need to be stated. To have made it explicit would have lengthened an already long post and distracted somewhat from the purpose of the article. I’m sorry you weren’t able to work that out for yourself. Similarly, I did not mention my work status: I have a part time contract and Foreign Expert status with a local day school. I freelance outside of that. To jump in like you did, bypassing the content totally, was a little folly, don’t you now think?

Mister Al. Thanks. See above.

Tofuman. Interesting comments. You ask why I would teach there. With a shortage of IELTS specialists in Xiamen, they offered 180RMB per hour. Theoretically, then, I could reduce hours and maintain my income. But the cumulative cancellations made the gig untenable. My masters is in Musicology/Regional Studies (from a Mid-South university), irrelevant here in China. Schools are impressed by the degree level in that they can pitch it to their students. As you point out, similar respect for the degree-holder is nowhere to be seen. The purpose in listing my quals. on the post was to convey my experience and dedication as a teacher. I agree with ‘dog’!

Norman Bethune. Thanks. You’re onto it. I must train myself to leave my teaching ethics at the airport, collectable on the way out.

To all of you: I have gone public about RUNNER EDUCATION in Xiamen. To foreign teachers elsewhere in China and overseas contemplating teaching in this city, and to those already in Xiamen, AVOID this school. And tell others!

Thanks, Tony Hale