Job Discussion Forums

[fetzenkopf]

Here is the real news on Nizwa and ELS. Unless you are finanically destitute or running from the law, DO NOT BY ANY MEANS take this job in Nizwa.

I have been reading the comments that the teething problems are over and that is the furtherest from the truth. There are two problems with Nizwa; the first concern is with the university itself. As a private university, the admin. will let in any student who can pay and most of them barely passed high school or had fabricated marks to enter Nizwa. These students have no brainpower to learn a foreign language and many girls go to Nizwa to try to learn enough English to improve their marriage prospects. They are destined to fail and even if they do fail repeatedly all year, the university will push 2/3rds of them through to make room for more new students and fresh income. This year, there were 4 TOEFL tests to see if the students had improved and could passed the 500 level. After the first three tests, only 2 students passed but after the fourth test, 600 were passed by the university.
As for ELS, they are great as a part time job but not for Nizwa. The project manager is a nice guy but he is helpless because he has two idiots as his academic and admin. managers.
These two "native speakers" imposters changed positions half way through the year and both are equally incompetent and most importantly, English language challenged to be polite. Neither of them can write a memo which is not fraught with errors. It was most embarrassing to be called an English Language Center with these two losers who combined, have less than two years of ESL teaching themselves. At times, some teachers would give out reading quizzes prepared by the current academic manager and tell the students if they can find the "structural" mistakes, they would get extra bonus points.
But if you are illiterate yourself and think making tons of structure and spelling mistakes is okay because nobody will really notice, this is the place for you.
The only summation one can make about Nizwa was everything that could go wrong, went wrong. As long as there is not a personnel management change by ELS at Nizwa and a "standards restriction" enforced by the university, the situation will not change next year or ever.
There are lots of good colleges who need teachers in Oman and I would recommend them any day over Nizwa. The only place of employment which is as bad as Nizwa is CECN. A real loser group as well.
If you find a job which may not pay what you would like and want to earn some extra work and cash, then ELS is fine.
ALSO A WORD OF WARNING: Once you sign up with ELS and Nizwa, you can't decide to go to another company once your contact has been completed because ELS refuses to give release letters. This is an ancient and senseless form of slavery and human rights violation.

There is a new language institute which recently opened up in the Muscat area called Modern Gulf English Institute. The lady owner is South African and really nice. Several of my friends are working there part time and full time and she really knows how to treat her native speakers well.
Oman is a lovely country and the people are terrific. You will enjoy teaching there as long as you stay clear of Nizwa and CECN.

[mci]

Well, fetzi, judging by your post, it is fortunate that your bitterness and somewhat childish name-calling are not augmented by any lack of cultural sensitivity for the interior Omani students. Otherwise, you'd be a real triple threat! Sounds like the Gulf is a great place for you to expand your tolerant nature.

BTW, the issue of the release letter is hardly an Omani policy - it is Gulf-wide and every employer utilizes it, from the Ministries down to the private sector schools and colleges.

mci

[suzannesmith009]

Dear Fetzenkoph,
THANK YOU for so accurately and logically explaining the problems with ELS at the Universityof Nizwa. The University is NOT to blame just the incompetance of the so-called Academic Directors of ELS. I am positive that the University is reconsidering giving the English Foundations Program to a QUALIFIED company to assist the Omani students in improving their English. As it stands, due to ELS, they have not been too successful. Hiring teachers who have some experience and expertise in teaching would be an added bonus!
It is true that ELS' policy of give no release letters has caused some major concerns for the GREAT teachers who had to leave Oman even though they were offered wonderful positions within Oman. Oman is losing some very dedicated teachers do to this archaic policy!

mci: Do you have ANY idea what has been happening at the University in the past 9 months? Have you worked there? Maybe BEFORE you start attacking people who have told the TRUTH and walked in our shoes, you should have a little less "childish" attitude!

[mci]

ss9,

I think the term you are looking for is sarcastic rather than childish - it is posters like you and others who are throwing around locker room name-calling in order to anonomously insult your current or former employers. I know all to well how posters distort the situation based on their own perceptions or simply out of sheer malice towards an administration which hasn't agreed with them or, heaven forbid, asked them to do an honest weeks work for a comfortable salary.

It is a teacher's lot in life, perhaps, to disagree with their admin. and the style or content of various programs - if you know the secret to running any language program so there are no deficiencies, the students are completely successful and the teachers - all 100 varieties of personal and professional potential liabilities - get along and do their jobs well, then you should be master of the universe.

As it happens, I do know enough about Nizwa to defend your accusations so that there is at least some balance on this forum. As another poster mentioned earlier, once it's on here, it stays and so the power goes to the disgruntled who fire a parting shot at their empoyers.

As an example, the release letter issue is a dead one - you might as well complain that it's too sandy in the gulf and hot in the summers - can you just waltz into any country and work as you see fit? It can be a hinderance but it also protects employers from those who would get a free plane ticket to a country and then skip off to a 'better' job.

mci

[veiledsentiments]

Just a comment on release letters. I don't know about the situations of all of these people, but if they have completed the contract and given proper notices, there is no excuse for the employer not to give a release.

And THAT should not be a dead issue. It seems that there are too many places in the Gulf that make it a rule to never give the release letters under any circumstances. Professional reputable organizations always give them - normally without your even asking. I had two of them from my first two employers in the Gulf before I even knew what they were.

This is called 'spite.' And any company that takes part is such an activity deserves to never be able to hire another teacher.

VS

[suzannesmith009]

Dear V.S.

Thank you very much for your words of wisdom! Finally someone with the knowledge of how teachers, and GREAT ones I might add, should be treated!

Thank you on behalf of all the teachers that are leaving/have left that truly had something special to offer to the Omani students and their futures and DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE OMAN!

[mci]

Well, I don't disagree at all about the concept of the release letter potentially being abused for spite - what should also be noted, however, is that greatness, suzanne009, is in the eye of the beholder.

There are a thousand stories of teachers who figured they were great. They had their own ideas about curriculum, methods and cultural sensitivity - surprise! The school disagreed and how dare they!

I'm taking the devil's (admin) advocate side on these issues because I've seen too many self-righteous teachers who are floating around the ME with chips on their shoulders.

mci

[veiledsentiments]

Of course you are right mci, but also all over the world in this field. Perhaps it is because many EFL teachers started teaching as a means to travel, rather than a real desire or even interest in being a teacher.

But, I think that you would agree that generally speaking in a poorly managed institution, the better teachers are the ones who bail out - because they can.

Of course the ones who end up losing the most are the students.

VS

[fetzenkopf]

Thanks to Suzmith009 for your comments. We did walk together and we both know what is the painful truth about Nizwa. My comments are not coming from some crazied, disgruntled maniac but as a warning to good, decent folks who should avoid getting into a no win situation.
Good teachers were not renewed due to the mercurial whim of the academic director who had personal vendettas. Healthy organizations allow for employees and colleagues to disagree with each other and to respect each other for their disagreements. Personal vendettas do not make a work environment productive and a place where people enjoy coming to work every day. If this were a good organization, then the retention rate would be very low and people would be writing positive things about Nizwa as they would be proud to be a part of it.

I was not going to lower myself to respond to the nasty, frivolous comments from MCI. It is obvious that he or she works for ELS and wants to defend his or her employer and not face the truth. Besides, this is how you spell "error."
MCI is ill informed about the release letters. This is not a set policy followed by 100% of the Omani employers. I know of several colleges which are giving out release letters once the contract is finished. This is also true for other gulf states such as the UAE which has recently expanded these release letters to workers who have completed three years with the same company.
The shame behind the attitude of ELS is even when they do not renew contracts, they still won't give release letters. So, even if they don't want the teachers, they prevent them from trying to find employment in Oman. That's plain human rights violation by any standard. My warning on these letters goes to teachers who may find they really like Oman and wish to stay on after their contract is over. They may not even have the chance of staying on in Oman for a second year if ELS doesn't want them and find themselves scrambling for a job.
Many people may write to these forums to vent their frustrations. I think people can read between the lines of a disgruntled employee and one who sees this forum as a way to warn others of unpleasant work environments which have no chance of improving under the current situation.

[mci]

Fetzenkopf,

My comments were not meant to be nasty, just sarcastic - perhaps I should have been more direct as I was commenting, if you would care to read it again, about your rather judgemental and stereotypical assessment of Omani students - "no brainpower" "increasing marriage prospects" "barely passing highschool" Very nice - I would hope that anyone with some degree of respect on this forum would agree that those comments are malicious and bitter.

And, no, I don't work for ELS or in Nizwa - sorry, I need the bright lights of Muscat for my salsa-fever lifestyle - but I will continue to take the benefit of the doubt approach to comments like yours and others regarding admin, ELS or otherwise. It is the admin folks who don't "lower" themselves to repond to these comments. Perhaps I've become a bit of a 'yes man' for the educational administrations of the world, or maybe I just get along and do my job as it should be done - who knows? the number of rings around my trunk tell me that I'm beyond really wasting too much energy on griping.

However, I will happily take the time to respond to a comment like your 'brainpower' remark and the almost comical blunder of chastising a director for grammar mistakes and then making several basic ones of your own.

Have a happy day!

mci