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Chinese Taipei School Kuala Lumpur (CTSKL)

 
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trex



Joined: 03 Jan 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 12:39 am    Post subject: Chinese Taipei School Kuala Lumpur (CTSKL) Reply with quote

Hello Everyone,

If the school has been discussed on the forum, please point me there.

I've been contacted by their Human resources group encouraging me to apply for a vacancy opening in August this year: EFL to be taught to an uncertain variety of grades

I've asked around, looked around and see more negatives than positives.

Can someone with recent experience there let me know what to expect?

I'm first of all confused by the school name as the school is located some distance from KL

The negatives center around their confusing administrative structure, with a lot of bickering between different factions. Is this accurate?

Is there a student discipline issue? Some have said they encountered some hefty fighting amounts students ...

Is the housing on- or off-campus? I read that rarely do new foreign staff reside off campus. How's the provided housing?

I've seen more bad than good, and wanted to confirm that the comments are non-biased, written from the experiences of a failed interview or a bad experience.
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beth_hodgkins



Joined: 27 Jun 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 5:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi trex! Can I assume you’re not presently in Malaysia? An EFL job at hand?

The school is an hour’s drive (no traffic,rare) from KL There are local buses to take you to a transit depot serving KL. They run on schedule but with the seasonal heavy rain or blistering heat it’s not a pleasant wait. Taxis will take you where you want to go, but you have to arrange for them and they’re not cheap. If you hold an int’l license and insurance, a reliable school car is available to those reserving in advance. Across the school is a large 2 story mall with a supermarket, salons, phone providers, restaurant chains, women's fashion etc also not cheap. Also across the street is a food court that has Thai, Malay, Indian and local Chinese — vendors all super friendly with great stuff at modest prices. And beer, but be discreet! You might consider takeout for lunch as the school provided lunch (and dinner) is not good. You’ll have to buy in advance and store as there’s a strict policy that forbids anyone from leaving campus during work hours without written permission from the ‘dean’. No exceptions. The guards will not let you leave unless you have the pass.

Unless you’re local or married locally, you’ll house in a small private dorm room on the floors above the classrooms. Spartan. Everyone has plumbing issues and the shower is more of a trickle. Just collect and store the trickle in a bucket for flushing and bathing. AC works well, never a problem. There are 2 communal basic kitchens w/ packed fridges on each of the 2 floors. Hallways, kitchens and other shared spaces are cleaned daily,rubbish removed daily and insecticide applied at least once a week. Never saw a roach, few times a lonely mosquito. Your neighbors will be the few upper-school boarding students (2 per room), the current expat teacher/s and Taiwan teachers, many of whom are divorced/abandoned moms with kids. The other Taiwan teachers are recent uni graduates, all in their first and last year with the school they call the ‘prison’. Only expats have wifi access. Everyone has access only to the floor where their room is. The doors are secure, require a card key or passcode to open so it’s usually a safe environment for everyone. Sometimes doors are slightly propped open late night for ??????

CTS-KL is not an international school per se, though there’s a smattering of students from South Korea, China and the States. The majority of the student population is Chinese-Malaysian or Chinese-Taipei, as are nearly all the teachers and administration, and most of these are mothers with enrolled kids. The stated goal is to placethese students into a STEM major at a Taiwan uni so the Korean, Chinese and US students attend only elementary, none stay 1-6. The school accordingly emphasizes maths and the sciences, especially for grades 7-12. Janitorial, maintenance, grounds and security are all Malaysian, and they’re very friendly especially if you speak some Malaysian.

There are serious discipline or behavioral issues with some of the Chinese-Malaysian and Chinese-Taipei kids all grades—I learned that CTS-KL is the end of the line for some of these guys—they’ve been expelled from or don’t qualify for other schools. Primary kids tortured a cat with ammonia cleaner sprayed into its eyes, 1 upper-school kid tried to jab a pen into her classmate’s eye, books and shoes were thrown serious hard at a woman Malaysian language teacher—knocking the white board down, potted plants were tossed from higher stories to land on visitors’ parked cars, older students physically prey on much younger ones: hard shoving to get in the queue, basketballs thrown into the face … just the normal kid things. Lots of verbal abuse amongst the kids, sometimes leaving the offended in tears. Reports by many teachers were regularly filed with the 2 counselors but no significant action was taken . The admin couldn't be bothered to listen. 3 small kids went largely ignored after keeling over and vomiting during an outdoors parade and ceremony to entertain the school financiers for the afternoon. Only the strong can be called Spartan,

There’s lots of disagreement and animosity amongst admin, teachers, parents so there’s a lot of meetings to straighten things out, calm everyone down. Without any notice, teachers are summoned between classes or during prep-time or lunch or held up from leaving for the day to bring their records to meet with admin, parents and on occasion lawyers. Lawyers. Time wasted since the disagreements stem from personality clashes, power plays that won’t ever be resolved. Often it’s one parent against another, drowning the bullied admin/teachers, with everyone else dragged down. On the other side, quite a number of the teachers whose children attend the school have learned to network and provide completed assignments and exam answers in exchange for the same, which they give to their own children. They barter. I’d say more than half do this. I know of one teacher who temporarily stole a maths workbook from her daughter’s classmate to photocopy correct answers. Too busy to help her own child with long-division. Maybe just incapable. There were many cases when a couple of honest teachers were called to yet another impromptu meeting and had their computers raided and exams printed. Such backfired at least twice: when many kids wrote identical essays for the Chinese exam and when half a class wrote the correct fill-in answers for a different Social Studies test given 4 years prior. After hours, parents make angry phone calls mainly to STEM teachers and demand either on-line or phone tutoring. Your phone number and email address will be forwarded without your permission. Just don't answer!! Call back the next day. Or forget to.

The school is very successful at placing its graduates in good universities in Taiwan.

Does this help?

If interested in the EFL aspect, let me know.
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twowheel



Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Posts: 753

PostPosted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

YIKES!

No thank you.

twowheel
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trex



Joined: 03 Jan 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Many, many thanks for your reply, Beth.

It saves lots of effort on my part and theirs. Other schools private a/o Chinese have contacted me. It seems the one I inquired about is confused with others in KL. Seems lots are confused.

What i had read online and heard from others is troubling, not at all for me. Yours confirms.

Their web-page has not been operational since I began researching them. So ....

Some contacts told me how the school is notorious in Taiwan, that it's 1 year at most for those coming from there. They stay for the year or they are blacklisted in Taiwan. Sounds evil.

I'd hoped the EFL program was something I could contribute to, but it's really not worth the risks.

I wish them well, and hope they work things out and soon.
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