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SandyMan · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Nizwa

Five teachers at Nizwa College of Applied Sciences have been fired by the MoHE today. By email. Not even a personal phone call. No reason given. Three of the five teachers definitely wanted to renew their contracts for next year. One was thinking about it.

I've lived in the Middle East for quite a while but I've never heard of anything like this. I'm checking my mailbox every ten minutes.

Would be interested to know if anyone is recruiting for Nizwa College right now..

windstar · Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

interesting, one of my close friend called me and he said he was fired too, he wanted to teach a few more years. His termination method is the same, email.

mishmumkin · Joined: 01 Sep 2007 Posts: 929

SandyMan · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Nizwa

If Nizwa College is recruiting.

If teachers are fired because the MoHE expects the student numbers in Nizwa will drop when the Business and IT majors are moved elsewhere next year (Ibri, Salalah, Sohar and Sur), that's one thing. If they are firing and recruiting at the same time, that's quite different. That means that they actively want to get rid of these five teachers - which leaves us with the question why them?

boundforsaudi · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 243

Grapevine says Majali is cranking up his well-oiled recruiting machine. Seems like somebody said there was a movement for raising the requirement to the MA level. Did the fired five have MA's?

SandyMan · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Nizwa

Only one out of the five has an MA. But there are not many MA's among the 45 English teachers at Nizwa College of Applied Sciences, so I don't know if that's a deciding factor.

windstar · Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

My friend had an MA in TESL.

Ian2005 · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 3

I heard about 10 teachers have been fired at Nizwa College of Applied Sciences. It is said that those who expressed their feelings and spoke up against the head of the department (MOD edit) at the meeting were blacklisted.

What is your take on this?

Ian

SandyMan · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 56 Location: Nizwa

Ten?! Maybe I'm out of the loop. Must check this tomorrow. If ten is the correct number, tomorrow will be quite a day, I'm sure.

Different people have spoken their minds at staff meetings over the last year, but of the fired five I know, only one or two have typically spoken up at meetings. Could be a factor for some, but would definitely not be be true for some of the fired five.

lall · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 358

kaw · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:45 am Post subject:

Oh dear - looks like silly season is upon us. Lall is obviously very bored and looking to start an argument.
As I have nothing better to do before I get ready for work I'll oblige..

1. In mine ( and other people's experience) you do not generally need an MA to be able to teach well and especially not in this part of the world. As a colleague of mine said yesterday - someone with experience in the prison service or an army major would probably have more luck that someone who's spent several years studying how to be nice to students Laughing

2. Not everyone who speaks English thinks they can teach it - out of the many many non-teaching English speaking friends I have I don't think any of them would feel confident enough to teach the language they have been speaking since birth - yet more than happy to teach other foreign languages...

lall · Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 358

Dear Kaw,

I concede that "Every native (and non-native) speaker who can hold a conversation in English thinks s/he is fit to teach English" was an over-generalisation.

Yet, Kaw, don't you think that:

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

This is my third attempt to respond to this thread. I keep getting mysteriously logged out...

Anyway, the toll stands at 7 now, including at least two with MAs and at least two that had already resigned. Seems like overkill to fire them. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was because they spoke up.

I am thoroughly disappointed by the way the new manager at CfBT has handled this. Call me naive, but I've always thought that good management required people skills. In the past, I spoke favorably about CfBT here on the forum, but not anymore. My good opinion of them left when the previous manager left.

d

kaw · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:15 am Post subject:

lall - am not implying that students over here don't deserve the same as anyone else - all I'm saying is that with the level of students we often find in Foundation years an MA may not be of much use......

Back to the original topic though......it would be interesting to kow if these teachers were fired due to voicng their opinions. Unfortunately though it seems to happen quite a lot in this part of the world.

Duffy · Joined: 29 Oct 2005 Posts: 449 Location: Oman

Denise,

Are you saying that the teachers who have been fired have all been recruited by CfBT??

Though I am not with CfBT, I have quite a few friends who are, from what I have heard about the new manageress, I agree with you, bring back Tim!!!

Duffy