Job Discussion Forums

[andwar]

What is the consensus about the Asian High School?

[esbam2002]

I am not that sure about the Asian High School, since I worked at IPS, the primary school, on Cao Thang St. I can say from my experience, and what I heard from others, that I would avoid them totally, unless you are desperate for quick work. My problem with IPS was not my students, they were great and I loved all of them, but the Vietnamese management is highly unprofessional and discriminating to foreign staff, and abusive to the Vietnamese staff. The IPS teacher manager, has to be one of the most unprofessional managers I have ever worked for here in Vietnam. She fails to give you correct and accurate information, manages with threats and intimidation, and strongly plays favorites to the point of creating very negative reviews about you for personal reasons to run you out of the school. Example when my TA has nothing negative to say about my classes The teacher manager told her that was unacceptable and to find negative things. The teacher manager then strongly punished my TA to the point of publicly shaming her to the other Vietnamese teachers, because my TA told me this. It was as well strongly suspected that The teacher manager was in a business relationship with a Vietnamese here, who is well known to most foreigners, to where she would direct teachers to him to get work permit, some illegal work permit since he would claim he could get work permits without verified documents outside of HCMC which is not legal either as no matter where you get it all documents have to be certified, for the excessive cost, three times the amount, of 1100 USD, or he would refer teachers he was going to get the money from to IPS where she worked.

The relevance of all this is the level of complete unprofessionalism within the school that is supported by the owner, who runs IPS and her husband AHS, as I was told, and the level of corruption at the school system starts there, which is most likely due to their VNGov connection again as I was told. Previously they were over taxing teachers 25%, and this year it looks like the new scam is in the work permits. Very few if any teachers seem to get an IPS work permit, and the lawyer I had working on mine with a Labor Dept connection told me that IPS has many teachers work there, due to their extremely high turn over, but very few get their work permits there.

Without a work permit with IPS, and I believe AHS, in there name you are not considered one of their teachers, but rather a contracted teacher. This means you get a labor contract and not a work contract, and you don�t get the higher pay or the social benefits. If you are one of the teachers that does get a work permit at IPS, or AHS, the school will consider it their property and not give it to you for any reason, which is against Vietnamese labor laws as you the teacher get the original of your work permit and the school gets a certified copy. IPS and AHS do it reversed and give the teacher the certified copy and keep the original work permit, and under no reason will they let you have it. I know a teacher at AHS who has tried everything and they just keep giving him certified copies of his work permit. This obviously will cause you, the teacher, potential problems if you need the original.

I will add as well that at IPS we only get two three month contracts, both labor and work contracts, so if you had an IPS work permit or not it didn't matter. I was told, by the lawyer I had working on my work permit, that this is a loop hole in Vietnamese labor laws that allows them to not list you as a teacher, by which they can avoid paying the VNGov for your social benefits, and not giving benefits to you either, or something like that as I understand what she was telling me.

My experience was having all my documents finished in the time I was told to finish them, and signed an agreement too. All the teacher manager had to do was meet the lawyer, as she promised and did in the past, and take the papers to the owner, who all she had to do was sign and stamp the application papers so the lawyer could submit them. The school knew they were finished but refused to keep their promise and meet the lawyer I had working on the work permit, blocked the completion of the work permit, ignored all proof and relevant facts, then blamed and fired me for not having a work permit, even though again they knew, and saw, everything was finished and the lawyer had the application papers ready.

There was as well the note a few days before I left too that from that day on Vietnamese have priority on the elevators. We as foreign staff have to wait and allow all Vietnamese, teachers, students, cleaning staff, and whoever Vietnamese to use the elevators before we can. We still have to be to class on time and if there was no elevator in the time needed you climbed the stairs, which could be as high as 6 floors.

This is the level of discrimination and unprofessionalism, you most likely will have as AHS and IPS are both one in the same, one is the primary school and the other the high school, and policy is ran by the same people. I worked at the Cao Thang campus and I have nothing good to say about the Vietnamese management or the teacher manager, who I have yet to find anyone that worked at that school who likes her, and most, if not all, have a 5 letter word name for her that rhymes with witch. I had a friend that worked at another campus who said his manager there was just as bad. Everyone I know who has worked there, and quit or left, will never return.

Not sure if this helps but it is my experience and the experience of people I know who were there too.

[andwar]

Wow! Tks for the info! I'll avoid that school.

[Beautiful Loser]

Spot on esbam2002.

Great students, but VERY bad management and ownership.

[bobpen]

Asian High School is the place back in '07 I believe (or '06) that had the knife attack, student grievance related. A few other teachers and even Viets were jokingly telling me "don't work there." I'm pretty sure it made the local headlines, which could be retrieved with a search.

The IPS system, which I understand is the parent company of the larger family (that includes AHS), is also famous for messing teachers around on taxes back in '08 I believe. The word was that at one point they immediately deducted huge sums on most everyone's paycheck, informing them that it was to make up for taxes that they "should have" been paying or paid in the past, and even their claims were very illegit. Of course all made up on a whim based on how they decided to construe the mixed up tax laws. In any event supposedly most of those teachers never recovered it, or did so with a fight and a long wait, the last I heard.

I did an interview there mid 08, the lady who interviewed I'm told is also the main teacher manager for the foreigners. Nice face and at first pleasant personality, that is until she was sitting in on my demo and demanded I do what she said with a smug face and raging hand signals. Another teacher said of her, "stay away from Ms. (forgot name), she has a chip on her shoulder." I also didn't like the all-black chalk boards, left white dust all over my hands, shirt and pants. Didn't decide to work there after the demo. Forgot that lady's name, Ms. Phuong perhaps?

[Beautiful Loser]

Knife attack? I think you may be mistaken. The students there are generally well behaved. The only knife I ever experienced was the type that gets stuck in your back by fellow teachers/staff.

Last I heard they had a native of France teaching pronunciation. They are, and always will be, desperate for teachers. The attitude displayed in the aforementioned demo is a small example of why. I think they've actually conned themselves into believing they're a legit school.

[sigmoid]

[tonyjones01]

[Beautiful Loser]

[esbam2002]

I agree I was again at the Cao Thang campus for IPS, teaching grade 3, 4, and 5, and not once saw any incident of major violence at the school by the students. In fact it was the opposite where my students were very open, communicative and well behaved, mostly.

As for the manager the guy had in his demo nothing much has changed there in 2010-2011. I was told several times by Ms. Doan, manager at the Cao Thang campus, that if I didn't do things exactly as she wanted, she would find a teacher who would follow her exact direction. She seemed to think she was smarter than everyone, all her teachers, and in not so few of words told me that she knew my students better, sitting behind a desk in her office, than I did in my classroom each day.

Again the standard practice of the school is leadership by threats and intimidation, all supported by the owner, and I lost count how many times I was threatened as they tried to intimidate me.

[andwar]

What's the situation of IPS in Tan Binh District? Very short walk from my house. Should I take a look? I have heard nothing good about THE INTERNATIONAL PRIMARY SCHOOL. But the location is so convenient!!! Pros & cons pls.

[Lear]

Here's some more on IPS and AHS. Check out this link.
http://www.saigonesl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=810&start=0

[bobpen]

It's interesting that an entire school would completely hush such a major incident and not bother to tell new hires.

The major VN publications that I checked have no traces as well. I was able to dig up some pieces from a website that is apparently in the US, devoted to logging violence in high schools. I recommend typing "Asian High School" in quotes and adding a word or two, like fight, or knife, and so on.

Here is a link to that, with a quote:

[esbam2002]

It is easy for IPS/AHS I would guess to silence or do anything they want. They on a regular basis, from what I experienced and heard, violate laws here with nothing happening to them. I was told by a teacher at IPS that the school was one of the first primary schools to open here in Ho Chi Minh, and that the owners are loaded financially, and have very good VNGov connections with high up officials.

[The Mad Hatter]

Yes, it's to be avoided. I have worked there in the past and the situation hasn't changed over the years except for they have gotten more successful and expanded all over town. Their favored status has allowed them to continue in their no textbook no or bare minimum libraries or materials, and to become more brazen in their disdain and contemptuous attitude toward teachers.
Anyone who has worked there will tell you that they are basically in the room, with nothing to do or teach, and they are expected to stand at the chalk board and write a few lines which students dutifully copy down in their notebooks and then say and repeat with them. Getting supplemental material is a pain because you have to photocopy a whole class of 25 or more, for each of the six 30 minute classes you teach. The staff doesn't exactly make it easy for you to run off the copies you need. They have you teaching classes like " speech" or "pronunciation" or "reading" and even "drama" of all things, but it's just the same. You stand at the board and yell shuttup for the whole time. Or else you are drowned out by the volume, and after a while you dont even bother trying get them to be quiet.
A while back I went in to apply and in the first interview I was told of their pay scale- one which was quite high if you had a work permit and the other which was quite low. I think about $25 and $17 . I came back for the next interview and showed my work permit and they said that it wasn't a good one and Id need a new one for their school, and so the said there was a middle rate- $19 or something,. Which they hadn't told me the previous meeting. The staff poured over my work permit closely and didn't know how to read it, and pointed out errors in it saying it was expired- none of which which was true. They said I'd need to resubmit all new red stamped documents which is not true . Procedure is if you already have one its easy to change to a new school and documents are at the office. But at AHS they looked over my documents and said they weren't real or good enough.
It wasnt their place to do this at all. Clearly they use the work permit issue to NOT pay teachers, or control them. This is the most egregiously arrogant and malfeasant little bunch you will ever meet. Too much power, and a well developed, long term, arrogant behavior toward foreign teachers. They advertise their school as an international school with foreign teachers but dont listen to a word or suggestion any of the foreigners have, and they turn around and underpay them while cramming kids in the rooms. They make tons of money there, and if you work there youll be dealing with this bad attitude they have. Even if you get some hours the tension in the air is palpable.
Here's a link to the thread on the shameful puppy mill at another blog: http://www.saigonesl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=810&start=0