Job Discussion Forums

[Archangel]

Hi folks,

I've just joined the team at Sohar College. All I've got to say is that the Head of Department doesn't know what he is doing and the Omani admin are totally hopeless.

I'm looking for another position asap. Morale very low amongst teachers here and several are thinking of quitting too.

Apply to work at Sohar College at your own risk.

[Duffy]

Archangel,

Come to Salalah, the situation is better here and we need teachers, if you and any others are with CfBT, you will know who to talk to.

There is no "quick fix" for your problem, you may have to wait until the end of this Semester and start with the new Academic Year in September.

Duffy

[yumyumkorea]

Cynic that I am, I detect the distant sounds of 'axe grinding' from a Steppy-Boy direction.

Archangel - posts 1 - registered simply to slag off the HOD of Sohar, now who does that remind us of?

More than one teacher from the 5 colleges has been 'relieved' of his/her duties over the past 6 months or so. One presumes there are a few scores to be settled, egos to be assauged, Perhaps Archangel nee Steppy-Boy possesses one of these egos.

Just a possibility.

[boundforsaudi]

Hey Duffy, nice try, my friend. Too bad you are short handed. Does that mean you are working an overload of hours, or that you have huge classes? But if you ask me you guys at the Salalah MOHE college made your bed and now you have to lie in it. What Archangel said about Sohar is also true of Salalah. Good teachers that don't leave of their own accord are shown the door. Management and mid-management don't want anybody around who might make them look bad.

[yumyumkorea]

'They got rid of me because I was too good'.

The traditional whine of the rubbish TEFL teachers throughout the world.

Get real.

[Duffy]

BFS,

As usual, SNAFU here

Bet you miss this place eh??

Duffy

[boundforsaudi]

[yumyumkorea]

When I registered for this forum I was in Europe.

I am now in Oman.

I work for the MOHE.

I have personal knowledge of 4 'leavings', both termination of contracts and requirements to leave. Not even the mothers of these four people would have described them as competent.

I know the HOD's, and some teachers from all 5 colleges. I have never heard of a termination because a teacher turned out to be too competent for his post. If this had happened, it would have been talked about.

I do not deny that such things happen from time to time, I would say however that within the system here, if a teacher does his job with anything like a reasonable degree of competence, his position is safe.

As for the 'funny dialect'. - To be described as a 'dialect', the English in question (in this case of course written English), would generally have to use words outside those considered normal within the Modern Standard genre. (If we consider the English from native speakers the only acceptable form, a point which is in dispute). Your use of 'ya' and 'ain't' is not (at least for the present time) considered acceptable within the written medium, either in Europe or the US. Thus, 'dialect' may be an epithet more suited to describe your scribblings, rather than mine.

[boundforsaudi]

If you know all 5 department heads, you must be one of those goody-goody types that is selected to go on those junkets to Muscat. And considering your dissertation on the definition of dialect, you probably write and publish papers on ESL pedagogy. Yawn. But since you are not a department head yourself, you are probably in the category I mentioned, whereby you do all the work and let the actual department head get the credit. How can you live with yourself? I'm overstating my case. It may be that your department head is way good. But you can't really know what it's like to work under somebody if you only know them socially, so you really should reserve judgment on Sohar and Salalah. Listen I was joking around about your use of the term "rubbish people," but hey, I'm starting to think I've met you a couple of times, and if you are who I think you are....

[yumyumkorea]

That's right, you've made your position clear, it's 'us and them' the goody goodies and the cool dudes.

When did you leave school? Grow up, you're a big boy now, you're meant to be in a profession where there's a little bit more to it than just simply turning up, doing the least you can, then going home. You obviously consider all management you personal enemy, what about your students, just annoying factors which make you come to work, and get in the way of your social life maybe?

My point stands, if teachers were fired because they were 'too good', it would be a major conversation point, and people would have heard about it. There are connections between all colleges among the teachers, not just among the 'goody goodies', the dudes talk also, when they've left off being too cool of course.

Yes, your point is valid with regard to some HOD's being incompetent and relying on others to do the work, but if the work were not to be done, it would be the students who suffer, and the students are why we're here remember?

In answer to your point regarding writing for ESL publications, the answer is no, you mistake the use of good English as a 'dialect', this says more about your own level of language knowledge than about mine.

[Stephen Jones]

[kuberkat]

Now I don't object to a bit of lively debate, but animosity is not so cool.

I am also (openly!) an MOHE employee and I feel the pain of every poster who suffers from incompetence, at departmental, college and ministerial level. This is obviously a not-for-profit affair where students get paid to study, rather than pay for (and appreciate) the privilege. I doubt anyone disagrees that our colleges leave much to be desired. Those who attended the recent MOHE conference in Nizwa will recall that even the director of the Ministry's English program based her presentation on the Serenity prayer. I rest my case.

But when it comes to the matter of English teaching staff, I think we haven't quite unraveled the mystery. I have yet to meet a person on this board who was not appointed by the ministerial recruiters directly after their interview (the recruiters being CFBT, CCN and the notorious Abdul Majid Majali, who poses as the director of the Hawthorn group, to which he is no longer affiliated.) Do they actually have any standards? Judging by the obvious unsuitability of many new hires, evidently not. (I say unsuitability: by that, I mean that some are not of the temperament to live in an Omani village, some are overqualified and paid a pittance, while some are simply unpersonable to a point where students are ruined by them. This is not a judgement , mind, just an observation in the interest of organizational and educational success. )

As the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers. As the remuneration packages shrink and the cost of living increases, I do not expect any improvement in our already shaky recruitment strategy. But I do notice that at least my head of department is seeing the benefits of keeping his worthy staff members. If only the agents would do the same! Most of my better colleagues hired by agents are looking to leave after one year- and considering their working conditions I can't blame them. If we want good people, we need a good environment and a good package. Without that, we all lose.