Job Discussion Forums

[mejms]

I've got to get this off my chest.

I've been teaching at a well-known "university" and "high school" for the last couple of months. I did one semester with them a year ago as well. I am still struggling to really understand how a "school" can be so awful. Administrative top heavy; teachers paid a pathetic salary, asked to do hundreds of insignificant tasks, and given no book although one is assigned for the course; no support for teachers from administration when it comes to problematic students; curriculum and resources that look like they were cut and pasted from google translator; exams that are full of grammatical mistakes... the list goes on and on.

And this school is growing! It seems to work because it looks nice on the outside and students have a ball all day goofing off with their friends. So the administration is happy with the growth, students are happy with the play time, and barely qualified teachers continue to work like dogs for their little paychecks. But, I'm telling you, classes are just awful. A teacher would need to bend over backwards, reinventing the syllabus, all while really making peanuts.

The few serious, more mature students I've spoken to have told me that the school is commercial but nothing academic whatsoever. The high school charges $4,500 per month. The college an even $5,000.

I'm finishing up this one semester because I've made the commitment and I need a couple months to line up something better. The last time around I was at a smaller campus so there were smaller classes. I tricked myself into thinking that I could stomach even larger classes with lower expectations when I decided to go back for this semester, but my expectations just can't get low enough. There is no way that I would do it again. No one pays any attention to the actual education part of the school. There are countless meetings about all sort of details, but never once has there been a meeting (in either campus) about curriculum and what students are doing in class.

I imagine teachers here do it because they don't have many qualifications to begin with and there aren't many opportunities out there. It really is shameful.

I hope there are much better schools out there. I really hope that this place doesn't speak for higher education in the country.

And I don't mind naming it because the word has got to get out.

TecMilenio (del sistema del Tecnol�gico de Monterrey).

[Enchilada Potosina]

And I thought the UVM was bad!

[robertokun]

OP, are we talking Queretaro?

[mejms]

[Phil_K]

Congratulations. Much better things to do!

[mejms]

[Prof.Gringo]

[tideout]

URSE in Oaxaca was similar.

The med students generally didn't give a crap because they'd "paid" for their degree already. Rampant cheating and really no backing from admin.

[Erdnuss]

Oh, boy....

I just got an offer from this school at their campus in Sinaloa. Is this particular branch as bad as the one you mentioned? Does anyone have information (first hand experiences, highly desirable!) about work load, student attitudes and expectations.

Many thanks in advance!

[Enchilada Potosina]

Here's the lowdown on private education in Mexico, particularly prepa and university.

The School Philosophy: Protect the prestige of the school at all costs. No student should fail, if so, the teacher was crap and the student should be passed, and besides they've already paid.

The Classroom: Basically crowd control and/or glorified babysitting. What do the students want, you may ask yourself. They don't want to work, do homework, they want the class in Spanish, zero restrictions on punctuality or attendance, they won't do projects or presentations and they all want to pass with 10s... ahh!! What they want is a class in a government school!! Of course!

The Pay: Only tolerable if you have a stack of qualifications that'll get you to the upper end of the pay scale.

Workload: Varies with each school but the Tec Milenio will give new teachers a maximum of 2 subjects (6 hours a week) so don't expect to eat well for a few semesters. The UVM has a limit of between 20 - 25 hours a week...

[Prof.Gringo]

[EFLeducator]

[EFLeducator]

[mejms]

[tideout]

I'm on the second half of a year contract in Asia and I've been contemplating a return to Mexico. I love the country in a lot of ways but threads like this make me worry I must say.

I was at a privately run school and a private university in Oaxaca which both did me in enough I ended up leaving Mex. Reasons are familiar to anyone who's worked a bit in Mex.

I'm wondering what the best option in general is then? A reasonably run public university or privately run school that's got a good reputation?

One of the things about the university I was at was the unbelievable amount of little "extra's" they wanted done. Paperwork, meetings etc.. The meetings killed me as they wouldn't give me enough hours to pay rent but wanted me to take a bus cross town 2x's a week for who knows what.

The students complained about the "low scores" for the class for the semester - like I wasn't delivering on something!

There was one woman who'd make suggestive looks at me all the while she was cheating and sitting next to her boyfriend. When I threw out her exam for obvious cheating - I mean more or less saddling up in the seat with her boyfriend, she threw a major tantrum in class. I honestly was looking over my shoulder coming and going into the university as it occurred to me it wouldn't be that hard to arrange for a bad morning for me....

But, back to my question if anyone can summarize the best slice of the industry to shoot for these days - I've got about 3 1/2 yrs. of TESOL experience good TESOL cert., BA etc...