This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 15 Feb 2008, by ningningning.
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15 Feb 08
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Privately Singaporeans whine; publicly speechless
When teachers were unhappy about something at school they complained a lot, quietly in ‘safe groups’ about it, but when it came to meetings, they were silent.
On more than one occasion western teachers were approached quietly by a Singaporean teacher to complain about something. When the matter was brought up, no Singaporean staff supported the complaint, but after the meeting they’d congratulate the ‘western teacher’ who’d brought it up.
This strange culture of fear permeates the whole staff. X has had various major problems, and staff never band together to change things despite the fact that the school has trouble getting staff, and they are far away from ‘trouble’.
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Not so at X. X actually has very highly qualified staff (either with a huge amount of teaching experience, or high academic qualifications) but this experience and expertise is rarely tapped. “Management knows best”.
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X call their students “clients”. This says so much about how the school operates, and highlights one of the schools other big failings- it runs only for profit. While students are charged hefty fees in US dollars, teachers often sit on chairs with broken wheels, have to buy their own pens when the ‘2 pens per term’ pens disappear, and hunt all over their floor for the one overhead projector.
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The westerners jokingly refer to X as a “supermarket”, because that’s the way it’s run. It’s certainly the most authoritarian place I’ve ever worked at, and conforms more to some of the stereotypes of China than China does.
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It’s a religion, to the point where many of my colleagues won’t even try food in smaller restaurants in China for fear of “dirty environment”.
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