Job Discussion Forums

[moonpie]

This is a fair warning to anyone who takes a position under the current English co-ordinator. This college has the absolute highest turnover of any of the colleges in Oman. Should you be so desperate to take a position under Hawthorne's Majali, you will be subjected to stone age attitudes towards teachers by, Majali and by the Omani cronies he serves. One of the 16 teachers last semester voiced displeasure at some trifling thing and was put immediately on a plane. This pattern of behavior has been repeated more times than bears repeating in this forum. If you are a workaholic, or have trouble saying no, your torment will be immense. Your co-teachers will have the easy life while you spend nearly every waking hour making your Omani bosses ,who are there as few hours as possible during the day, look good. They get the credit and you get used up and put into the barn wet.

[Middle East Beast]

Thanks for the heads-up, moonpie.


MEB

[runninggirl]

Which college is it in Sur that this slave shop is occurring?

If one were not working in the Eng dept how would Sur be otherwise? The town? The ocean?

Would you have liked it if you had a better job?

[Space Teacher]

[EFLprofessional]

I worked in Sur at the College of Applied Sciences for two years, and while I enjoyed my time there, it was not without its difficulties; lack of support from administration, lack of basic equipment, funds, supplies, etc. (I finally gave up and just began buying what I needed myself!). For the most part, the students are very sweet, intelligent, if not a little lazy, and a joy to teach. Most of them, like anywhere, want to learn; however, the biggest problem is not the students, it's the curriculum. The curriculum is designed for the failure of the student in that it assess the student on only 3 points: 50% the final exam, 25% the written report, and 25% the oral presentation! NOTHING ELSE, not "homework"...NOTHING! So, don't expect students to do homework! If the student "falls down" on any 1 of those 3 points, then his final mark goes right down the toilet! That puts a HUGE amount of pressure on the student....and the teacher because the administration DOES NOT LIKE TO SEE STUDENTS FAIL AND BLAMES THE TEACHER FOR THAT STUDENT FAILING!

Having said that, my advise to anyone thinking of taking a job with Hawthorn Muscat is DON'T!!! The Director, A.M., is as crooked as a dog's hind leg! He used to work in Sohar at Sohar University and was convicted of embesselment and served time in prison! But that didn't teach him anything beause he continues to run his scams on teachers by not paying them what is due to them. He is paid by the Ministry of Higher Education a "gratuity" of two months salary which is supposed to be paid to the teachers as incentive for their return and instead, he keeps that money for himself. I could go on because the "laundry list" of his "rapsheet" is long...but I think you get the picture.

So, while I would say that the people of Sur are friendly, helpful, kind, generous...and if you can put up with a "provincial town" then you would have no problem living Sur. Sur sits right on the ocean and there is plenty of things to do there; at Ras al Hadd there are the nesting grounds of the green sea turtles, there are wadi's to explore by 4x4 - this is a "rock climbers" paradise, and only 50km west of here is the Sharqiya Sands, a 200x400km expanse of muli-colored sand that is just beautiful to look at.

But if you are really interested in Sur, try to get a job directly with the Ministry of Higher Education in Muscat....but AVOID HAWTHORN MUSCAT AS IF IT HAD THE PLAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EFLprofessional]

Oppps! Sorry for all the misspellings in the above post from me. I was in a hurry and didn't check! I didn't follow my own advice to my students!

[madrileno]