Job Discussion Forums

[Epicticus]

Problems are never far from Sohar College. Yet again, two teachers have been fired recently, one for downloading pornographic material onto, of all places, the College hard-drive. The other, for taking drugs. On top of everything else, it is rumored that the Dean wants to abolish the entire English Department due to the very high number of students complaining that the teachers are incompetent and they are not learning anything.

[veiledsentiments]

That sounds like two well-deserved firings... and one of those common Gulf rumor-mill rumors.

Just exactly how are the students going to learn the English required for their content courses if there is no department to teach it. That one ranks pretty low on the believability scales. Student complaints... par for the course... the Dean patted them on the head and sent them off... the students then start the rumor because he seemed to agree. We all know that the real reason the students aren't learning is because they can't do it by their usual method of rote memorization. It requires that they actually work hard and use the language.

Funny how things never really change in Gulf education.

VS

[Duffy]

Same old. Same old.

Duffy

[Pikgitina]

[natureguy]

I have been teaching in the English Dept. at the College of Applied Sciences in Sohar for 2 years and I can assure you no one has been fired this term. If this does happen, it will not occur until after the 3-month probationary period has expired. At this point, there is no indication that these rumors are based in fact...period!

Why do some posters continue to single out the college in Sohar and spread such unfounded rumors? I suspect they are simply disgrunted former employees who were part of the the small minority of teachers at the college who were either not qualified professionally or were too psychologically unstable to survive outside the comfort zone of their respective home countries. Sure, every year there are a few teachers who do not make the cut for various reasons or simply decide that Oman/teaching in general is not for them but this doesn't happen any more frequently in Sohar than in most other TEFL locations around the planet. There has been a large annual turnover at every school where I have worked over the past 6 years.

The new group of teachers who arrived in September at the COAS campus in Sohar all appear to be highly competent in the classroom and have adjusted to the sturcture of the department. There will always be problems in any work situation, whether in one's native country or while living and working abroad. Humans (and the systems they create) are simply flawed and imperfect.

I keep in touch with teachers and former students at the other various COAS campuses in Oman. Teachers at the other campuses complain about the same things--lack of organization in the college administration, unmotivated students and the great lack of communication between the Ministry of Higher Education in Muscat and what actually goes on in each classroom. Former students often note that the English Dept. in Sohar (and the teachers who teach within it) are more competent than those at the other campuses.

Please find another dead horse to beat as this one should have been put to rest a long time ago.

[Duffy]

Perhaps the HoD of the English department in "Planet Sohar"may like to comment??

Or perhaps he or his pet already has.

Duffy

[Neil McBeath]

Good for you, natureguy.

Sohar College first got a bad press from the moronic Steppy-Boy, who turned out to be a very busted flush.

Now Epicticus, strongly rumoured to be one and the same, seems to have taken up the vendetta.

If the recently reported incidents were true, neither teacher would have any cause for complaint. But we are now told by someone currently working at Sohar that nobody has been fired.

This is a non-story. A horse that will not run.

[Geronimo]

[Beachee]

Good post Natureguy, sadly some people just like to beat a dead horse.

[Epicticus]

I don't know where you are getting your information from but I can assure all the visitors to this site that two teachers have been fired for the reasons I have mentioned AND the Ministry is conducting an internal investigation into the entire English "Department" with the intention of firing even more teachers.

[jdl]

So is this scenario possible?

Epicticus and nature guy are sitting cubicle by cubicle filing independent reports on the situation in the College.....sorta like FOX and CNN? No wonder it sounds so fantastic. Will we ever know?

[littleoldlady]

" People only see what they want to see" Ralph Waldo Emerson.

" There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so" W. Shakespeare.

[Geronimo]

On 6th August, in a response to one of my posts, Epicticus wrote that he had left Sohar College.
He added that:

[Duffy]

What about the "College of Wotaloadofkak"??

Duffy

[johnslat]

Dear Duffy,

Or how about Bullwinkle's alma mater: Whatsamatter U?

The school song:

"(chorus:)
What'sa matta you, hey,
Gotta no respect, whatta you think you do,
Why you looka so sad?
It's-a not so bad, it's-a nice-a place,
Ah, Shaddap You Face."

Regards,
John