Teachers on Strike at British Rego School

whoa, JW, I stand corrected.

You've made it clear to me that the actual experience of the children and the parents aren't important in evaluating a school's quality.

It's the on-paper credentials and the level of cold, hard cash that expat teachers take home that shows me what a school's all about.

Now I know my daughter had a shitty time and a substandard education.

Thanks man, the veil has been lifted from my pitiful eyes after three years of being blinded by happy children and parents.

What a fool I've been. I just hope its not too late to save my poor child from the devastation of her preschool years.

JW80 wrote:

evaluating and recommending schools is a part of my job. 

Sounds if you don't take actual parent or child experiences into consideration when evaluating schools.

JW80 wrote:

Because you sent you child there you know what's going on behind the scenes?

yeah, in fact i did.

That's because for three years I interacted quite literally every single school day with my child's teachers, over the course of 3 classrooms as she got older. Most of her teachers are still there, so there's a strong indication that the place is not a mess.

My daughter didn't feel "squashed" at all. She loved it as did her peers and most of the parents who had their children there.

In fact in a very relaxed environment she was better prepared in math, English and Chinese than many of her first grade peers.

Was it perfect? Far from it. I love to gripe just as much as the next concerned parent, and I'm not surprised to hear there's disgruntled teachers, just like there are in probably every school. Thing is that I didn't happen to run into any of them in 3 years, with the possible exception of one of the foreign teachers she had for part of one year who left abruptly (but was replaced by someone my daughter and her friends really loved).

Anyhow the the proof is in the pudding: my daughter loved it, learned a lot both academically and in terms of virtues in a free-form, low stress environment, and to my knowledge virtually every parent that had kids in my daughter's class felt pretty much the same way.

Morpheus747 wrote:

the reason is, oh seasoned rookie to china, that chinese will continue to lie in order to keep the peace. its disguisting. They just flat out lie about pay, knowing full well that they cannot pay. They try to get every last hour of continuing operations, while the teachers continue to work and fend for their lives for bill payment. I have seen this personally happen in business as well here. The conclusion: China is a broke country morally.

Yes, this I know. I was asking not as a "rookie to China", but truly puzzled that these teachers wouldn't know that "China is a broke country morally", and that lies are standard procedure. Whenever a salary is delayed more than a week, that's a Major Red Flag That Something Is Majorly Wrong. Yeah, the kids really are the victims here, but when I've had this happen personally or advised friends who've been in this situation, the teachers' refusal to work as soon as pay is delayed is actually the best thing for all concerned. It forces the situation to come to a head quickly, so the kids/parents can get out if possible and head somewhere else before too much of the semester is lost. Continuing to be patient and teach without pay--even for the sake of the kids--is, in the long run, doing the kids a disservice, because eventually that sense of duty to the children will have to give way to the I-can't-pay-my-rent-buy-food. And when that happens, everyone will be too far into the semester to have any good options: the teachers will be left struggling to find other employment that's halfway decent, as all good teaching positions are generally gone by then, and the kids will be left mid-semester with no way to jump into another school. They'll be behind by a semester or even a year, if they can't find another school that will take them. Teachers shouldn't boycott after three months of no pay; they should start making some significant noise after a week, and then boycott after one month. The no-pay-no-work is especially important with newly-opened schools like this, since usually the owners who've started it have not planned for the inevitable financial strain of the first year. It's that first year in which owners/administrators start to panic when they realize just what a mess they've gotten themselves into... and teachers' salaries are usually the first thing to go.

Totally shocked...

that this doesn’t happen every single day in China. With the amount of fake "International" schools here which are 100% owned by Chinese business people with no background in education, I can't believe there aren't more strikes. I'm looking at you Beanstalk, Etonkids, Family Learning House, BIS etc etc. Having done the circuit of fake schools, I have seen this type of situation happen over and over. Broken promises, unpaid salaries and teachers employed under false pretenses.

The Tsui brothers, owners of the Beijing Rego School, are liars and crooks. They stole roughly RMB 7 million from a non-profit organization that was supporting NGOs in China. Do not send your kids to the Beijing Rego British School.

Let's not forget that some teachers are doing it (gulp) not for the glorious salary but out of geniune passion for teaching and because they care about their students.

I'm not in their shoes (nor have I been) but if I were a teacher I'd have a hard time just walking out on the students in the middle of a semester ... if there are any innocents in all of this, it's the kids in the class.