Job Discussion Forums

[Susie]

What's it like to work for Chris Li and Sherry Sun? They seem to be really professional managers.

[balrog]

Appearances can be deceptive.

[Darius]

I taught at this school for a few terrible months and I recommend that you go nowhere near it - ever!

The management is a combination of totally incompetent and slyly devious - no one has any idea what's going on from one day to the next and this places huge amounts of unnecessary stress on the teachers.

When I was there they were in grave financial difficulties and were cost cutting all over the place. By "cost-cutting" I mean that they stopped providing us with adequate photocopying budgets, teaching resources, markers, etc. I left because they could no longer honour the accommodation clause in my contract. It was an absolute joke. Three teachers out of five left on the same day and the two remaining were only there because they couldn't afford to leave. I'm an experienced high school English teacher and I've never seen an unhappier staffroom in my life.

Don't think that you'll be teaching in the "well-appointed" school either - you'll be farmed out to local middle schools to teach classes of 50 plus in slum-rooms with no air conditioning and temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius. We used to call ourselves "the whores" because that's what it felt like.

The school's only been open since April 2003 and literally dozens of teachers have passed through its doors - most only staying a few weeks or months. EF Zhuhai has never been able to keep a DOS more than a month and when I was there they didn't have one. The DOS's responsibilities were simply divided up and added on to the teachers' work-loads. Some of us were teaching up to 32 hours a week!

The owner's a very cunning Hong Kong Chinese and he will be constantly leaning on you to do things above and beyond your contract.

Don't be like me and ignore the bad press about EF on this site - it's there for a reason (although obviously I can't comment on other EF schools). EF's flashy website bears no resemblance to the reality of EF Zhuhai I can assure you.

When I look at the EF advertisements now I laugh - and it's a laugh of bitter experience.

[Smiley]

I teach in Zhuhai and I know most of the teachers at EF and they can't wait to get out of there! This is one seriously bad school - beware!!!

If you want to teach in Zhuhai try places like TPR or Royal - far better.

I repeat, - avoid EF Zhuhai at all costs!