Job Discussion Forums

[glennfry]

Hi

I am a former teacher at Beijing Huijia Private School and from mine and my friends (who are still there) experiences there; I have to post this warning.

This school is definitely not a good place to work.
It is in a remote location (1-2 hours from Beijing) and 15 minute cab ride from a prettly useless little town.

The worst is how they treat foreigners. They make it extremely difficult for you to get along with the Chinese employees. They are not allowed into the recreational areas of the foreign teachers dorms even if accompanied by a foreign teacher.

They are extremely restrictive and have inconsistent rules to bringing friends onto the campus. They will not allow you to bring a girlfriend without 200 Yuan per night charge.

They are restrictive about letting teachers off campus. A note is required during the day and they are told to be in by midnight.

The pay is fairly low especially since you are in fact paying Beijing prices without the benefit of being in Beijing.

The way they treat the kids is horrible.

I was lucky to get out of my contract and some were unfortunate. One teacher was withheld pay for time he had already worked. They used intimidation tactics like withholding his passport. There was a case where the teacher successfully completed her contract but did not want to renew and they started messing around with her passport.

Anyways, overall this school is bad news.

[cujobytes]

[vivalgos]

I was very surprised to hear Huijia spoken of in such negative terms. I was the foundation teacher from Australia at China Australia College, which is part of the campus of Huijia. Also had a month`s relief work at the university there.
Being a joint venture between an Australian Language School and Huijia, I suppose our contracts were different from the othere FTs who were christian outreach students from the US and England. For example, we only allowed 18 in our language classes. Other classes had up to 40 tho.(Business studies, Health and Safety, Art, Social Studies)
I never had to ask to leave the campus.. you went through the `gate office` and just signed out.. Handy if someone wanted to know where you were, and vice versa on the way back.
A bus (for the teachers) went into Beijing each Sunday morning and also you could take one of the many buses that the students took each Friday to get back to Beijing where most of them lived. these same buses were available to get back to the college, on Sunday evening.

A guest of mine from Australia came to stay for a week, and I had to pay a minimal amount for accommodation.

The students have great facilities; swimming pool, bowling alley, ballet studio, basketball courts, Olympic sized running track , small shop where they can supplement boarding school food, (which is plentiful).

The kids all seemed very happy. They were well-adjusted and friendly to each other and to teachers. I only ever saw one student being reamed out by a teacher(Chinese) and I don`t know what he had done..

I had problems getting my head around the fact that it was a BUSINESS and that education was not the main idea... but never had too many problems with discipline. Mind you, one crappy kid who was cheeky,violent and insolent, nearly caused China`s first strike (`either HE goes or WE do` -- there were 2 other aussie teachers there at that time) and he went. (Saving face by saying he `chose` to go)

Pay was 6000 RMB at first and then at the Uni was 7000. Only once was it not on time. And once when I had it stolen, they gave me another 1000rmb because they were ashamed that a fellow countryman had done this.

Changping, the small town is within walking distance or a few minutes by taxi.. there are supermarkets and restaurants and is also home to the Ming tombs. The Great Wall is an hour or so away by bus.

I`m sorry that you had such an unpleasant time there GlennFry... Maybe the people in charge have changed since I was there. But other teachers I know have been there for a few years, in one case, for five years.
so, to others, I would say.. keep an open mind...

[Roger]

The OP posteed an extremely subjective and unbearably whiny, silly post. Ignore it!

[glennfry]

Well to the first critic, who has a legitimate position in that she actually worked, yes the management may have changed their style. But it is in fact 200 Yuan a night for someone who is not family, plus you have to justify it to the land lady.

As for, subjective and whiny (isn 't that in and of itself subjective)

- One teacher was denied a phone and was told it was because he has a wife in Beijing that he might call too much.

- You are given a limited number of electrical credits which one runs short of in the winter to heat your room. You are expected to purchase more.

- Medical claims go unprocessed and have to be rejustified.

And you think having your passport with held is something to be ignored?

[Madmaxola]

]Why w]hy why why why why why why why

WHY

Would you GIVE anybody your passport!? ARE YOU STUPID!?

[smalldog]

I am another of Huijia's former teachers, and I know some of the current teachers, and I too am somewhat surprised by this post.

The school does has its disadvantages: they are stingy about things like electricity and photocopying; it is far from Beijing (but the nearby town is by no means 'useless'); and being a boarding school does necessitate rules about bringing in guests.

However, it is also a school with serious educational aims (in a strange market economy sort of way) where good teachers can succeed without the anti-foreigner glass ceiling found in many Chinese institutions.

As the school has more than 50 foreign teachers each year, it's not surprising some of them leave unhappy.