Job Discussion Forums

[steppy-boy]

Apart from the incompetent Head of Department who doesn't know what he is doing 80% of the time, a dean and Admin totally out of touch with what is going on under their noses, as well as the low morale and general chaos we now have a self-proclaimed pornographer teaching in the Department.

What next? An escaped rapist masquerading as a TEFL teacher?

Why does the Ministry insist on hiring such people?? Is it desperate?

Disillusioned.

[Duffy]

25th of January 2007, steppy-boy wrote about Sohar College of Education,

[steppy-boy]

Duffy,

I did leave some time ago but you could say I am there in "spirit".

[yumyumkorea]

I am acquainted with the HOD's in all 5 colleges and the Sohar HOD seems reasonable.

Remember the 'chaos' is often not the fault of HOD's, or even the admin staff. Much of the material ordering is done in Muscat, or (as has been the case this year), the ordering started centrally then was passed out to the colleges at the last moment. That books do not arrive on time is often a symptom of the 'in sha' Allah' attitude in this part of the world generally.

You possibly did the right thing by leaving. If you are that 'good' and above such inefficiency why didn't you stay to help sort everything out?

Sitting in your office whining about deficiencies gets nothing done. Accept that things are not as they should be, and do what you can to remedy them.

[steppy-boy]

If the only problem was late arrival of books, there would be little to complain about. The problems at these Colleges are far deeper and more systematic than that. Why didn't I stay and help solve the problems? Simply, because it isn't my job to "solve" the problems of the College. I am paid as a teacher to teach English, not go around trying to solve the problems of the Ministry and Department. Anyway, the problems cannot be solved because it is ultimately the Omanis and their in-shalla incompetence that is at the heart of it all. They simply don't care or if they do, care in the wrong way. Didn't you read my last email yumyumkorea? The College has a porn star from Thailand on its staff. Surely this in itself is enough to cause warning bells to ring loud and clear. No yumyumkorea, there is something very very wrong with the whole system, so wrong in fact that teachers no longer see the problem because the problem is huge. Those new to the profession can see it and are deeply shocked and troubled by what they see. But if you stick around long enough, then the abnormal eventually becomes normal. But in the process of accepting the unacceptable, you run the risk of lossing your rationality and perhaps, soul.

[boundforsaudi]

Jeez, I wish we had a porn star in my school.

[kuberkat]

ROTFL!!! I wonder how a porn star would fit into our inbred little community where any white woman is pelted with stones as she walks alone on the street in shapeless, concealing clothes. Hmmmm...

But I empathise with the staff from all the ministerial colleges, not because we are without facilities (I can do low-tech any day of the week), but because we are assumed to have facilities which we do not. For example, our photocopying has been severely restricted because the English department made too many copies last semester. Nobody cares that we have the largest department by far, or that we were copying because textbooks hadn't arrived.

A small personal triumph for me was that when my head of department indiscriminately relayed a report of mine as his own at last week's conference in Nizwa, he failed to omit my subtly biting criticisms of a non-functioning system. I get along well with the guy, but that will teach him to plagiarize .

But any way you slice it, at least it's impossible to take a job like this too seriously, innit?