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ACETemployee Posted 17 years ago
Teaching
Wringing my hands in Vietnam
I’m very worried about ACET Hanoi.
Academic honesty and quality teaching used to be top priority. Now, students are given tacit approval to cheat with a three-strike policy and access to old exams. Students who cheat and rehearse the exams pass and reenroll!
Only one teacher that I know of has been fired for poor performance, but five experienced teachers with excellent employee evaluations have quit or been fired for conflicts with management. In each case, management gave varying and changing accounts as to why those people no longer worked at ACET. In all cases, management’s account differed greatly from that of the former employee! I find this lack of clarity and exodus (willing and unwilling) of longtime staff, both teaching and admin, extremely worrisome.
ACET’s new contracts are also scary. ACET can fire at will, but teachers have to give a month’s notice or risk losing a month’s pay! Blatantly one-sided contracts used to be found only at bottom-of-the-barrel English centers with a tough time keeping staff. What place do they have at a school that advertises itself as the cream of the crop? Is this part of a normal progression?
Even though there is talk of embezzlement, I don’t think the school will implode financially. Management runs a tight ship. If fraud is uncovered, though, it could mean a disruptive, albeit welcome, change. ACET is also making a ton of cash for its parent organization, IDP in , so those who suspect fraud don’t bring their claims there IDP. No one knows if IDP is worried about the long-term implications of ACET's actions, or if they are OK with it during these tough times in …
Teachers are at an impasse. Do we speak out and try to improve teaching quality? Will we get fired or have our hours reduced? Do we contact IDP about our fears that money is disappearing, or irregularities in tax policy? Do we talk to former employees in public, jeopardizing our good standing with management? ACET already employs someone who checks ESL forums and tracks down IP addresses of computers posting anti-ACET comments, like this one. Some teachers take their paychecks and look elsewhere for fun, but others are wringing their hands and looking over their shoulders.
What can we do?
Academic honesty and quality teaching used to be top priority. Now, students are given tacit approval to cheat with a three-strike policy and access to old exams. Students who cheat and rehearse the exams pass and reenroll!
Only one teacher that I know of has been fired for poor performance, but five experienced teachers with excellent employee evaluations have quit or been fired for conflicts with management. In each case, management gave varying and changing accounts as to why those people no longer worked at ACET. In all cases, management’s account differed greatly from that of the former employee! I find this lack of clarity and exodus (willing and unwilling) of longtime staff, both teaching and admin, extremely worrisome.
ACET’s new contracts are also scary. ACET can fire at will, but teachers have to give a month’s notice or risk losing a month’s pay! Blatantly one-sided contracts used to be found only at bottom-of-the-barrel English centers with a tough time keeping staff. What place do they have at a school that advertises itself as the cream of the crop? Is this part of a normal progression?
Even though there is talk of embezzlement, I don’t think the school will implode financially. Management runs a tight ship. If fraud is uncovered, though, it could mean a disruptive, albeit welcome, change. ACET is also making a ton of cash for its parent organization, IDP in , so those who suspect fraud don’t bring their claims there IDP. No one knows if IDP is worried about the long-term implications of ACET's actions, or if they are OK with it during these tough times in …
Teachers are at an impasse. Do we speak out and try to improve teaching quality? Will we get fired or have our hours reduced? Do we contact IDP about our fears that money is disappearing, or irregularities in tax policy? Do we talk to former employees in public, jeopardizing our good standing with management? ACET already employs someone who checks ESL forums and tracks down IP addresses of computers posting anti-ACET comments, like this one. Some teachers take their paychecks and look elsewhere for fun, but others are wringing their hands and looking over their shoulders.
What can we do?
Top answer
Step 1: form a union.
- Step 1: form a union.
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3 Answers
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Yes, it has become a bottom of the barrel place. Note that the Academic Coordinator has a very shady past and used a false diploma bought in Thailand to get his work permit. One can assume that the DOS knows this and this makes her an accessary before, during and after the criminal offence. It is an easy problem to solve. Just contact a journalist for one of the local papers, not the English lang
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I would be interested in any updates to these comments of a year ago.
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