Wow, it seems a lot of people have it out for this Delman guy. These latest allegations are quite serious and I hope more people at CMS will chime in in an effort to get more facts to determine if this is legitimate or not.

Either this guy is the biggest a-hole in international education or he is the victim of a mass conspiracy. Which is it?

[quote="fran"]With out ISR we would have nothing of any value to work with and these unethical people could just quietly continue to use us.[/quote]

Well said, Fran! The only thing that TIE Online cares about is maintaining the status quo at any cost. Period. Many schools have pretty sweet rackets going and instead of trying to come up with solutions, TIE Online and even organizations such as ISS and Search prefer to bury their heads in the sand.

I'd like to challenge TIEONLINE- Instead of complaining that ISR is "not fair" why don't you come up with some reasonable solutions?? The fact of the matter is this recruiting season had more vacancies than ever before with a static pool of candidates. Unless the agencies stop enabling the rotten schools, there will always be a legitimate need for a website like ISR.

Hey Specialed,

Are you finished??? :? You sound just like the typical "complainer" you claim to disdain?? :lol:

The bottom line is that International Schools Review will always attract some people with an ax to grind (kind of like the PTA at most schools), however, I think most people have enough intelligence to gather information from MULTIPLE sources before accepting a position abroad. ISR is just one source of information, although a valuable source that gives a VOICE to people who formerly did not have a platform.

I say get over it! If you don't like it here, you're free to not come here. Go hang out on TIEonline with the "Old Boy's Club" of international administrators who are obviously threatened by ISR. The fact is that if their wasn't a need for ISR, it wouldn't exist.

Have a nice day! :wink:

Thanks, Michael, for taking the time to tell us your story. For far too many years, some international schools have been given free passes while numerous educators have suffered. With this site, we now have an opportunity to expose the good situations and the bad situations.

In the interest of balance, I would welcome and would love to see someone from the American School Foundation in Mexico City give their side of the story here. I won't hold my breath, though.

Congrats on the new job at Aramco, Schley. I've known a few people who have worked there and they raved about it, in spite of the compound living. Even if you only stay 2-3 years, you'll save a boat load of cash and work with some great people.

[quote]A school isn't for teachers to make money[/quote]

This is just a silly statement, GHK. I would never apologize for expecting to be paid well for a service that I provide at a high level. If you believe this, GHZ, then you are in the minority and should perhaps devote your life to volunteer work. This might ease your guilty conscience for asking to be PAID for your work. :lol:

Getting back to the subject- I think MobyDick voiced the most balanced opinion on the matter. Any competent administrator will tell you that THE most important aspect of a quality school is the staff. You can "throw" all the materials, laptops, and facilities you want at students, and it will not raise achievement if the staff is mediocre or suspect.

To infer that a school is not "putting the students first" because they are paying their teachers well is absurd and sounds like Admin-speak. I put this question out to everyone- Do schools like ISKL, Shanghai, Tokyo, Taipei, and JIS "put their kids first" even though they offer their teachers good salaries and benes? I do not believe that it is mutually exclusive, unlike GHK, who apparently does.

[quote]You need to compare ISM with other schools in Manilla and the Philippines rather than schools in other countries. [/quote]

I don't agree with this statement at all. I believe it is quite reasonable to compare schools within a specific geographic region. In my case and in the cases of most international teachers whom I've been exposed, the usual scenario is that one is interested in working somewhere in Asia. If you happen to be an experienced international educator with skills that are in demand, you'll have the 'top dog' schools going after you. And from what I can tell so far, ISM can't compete for those international educators who are sought after and have options.

By the way, most Administrators from low-paying schools will say that you shouldn't compare their school with schools from other countries because of the cost of living, however, I only buy this if you are working in countries like Honduras, Colombia, Croatia, Cambodia, etc. where there aren't an abundance of well-paid expatriates. But for a capital Asian city with a sizeable, well-paid expatriate population, the salaries at ISM should be much higher.

I'd love to know how the actual Administrators and/or board members at ISM justify their poor salary schedule, BESIDES using the usual rhetoric of 'well, we're the highest paying school in the Philippines'. My answer to that is 'So what? Tell me why I should work at your school over Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei, KL, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, etc. which are great schools, with much better packages and I can save more money?' I mean, the city of Manila in itself certainly isn't a selling point...

But what other large, Asian school in a capitol city has such poor salaries? Here is the the URL for their salary scale-

http://www.ismanila.org/_Rainbow/images ... e08_09.pdf

Hi All,

I'm considering a job at ISM in Manila and something just doesn't add up. Here we are in Asia, where large international schools in capitols tend to pay well- I'm talking about schools like ISKL in Malaysia, JIS in Indonesia, SIS in Singapore, ASJ in Japan, TAS in Taiwan, etc. etc.

So why would an established, large international school located in an Asian capital city low-ball teachers by offering such mediocre salaries? I would literally start USD $13-14,000 less than JIS. I've been to both cities and the cost of living seems roughly the same.

Does ISM not care at all about attracting the best teachers? I can't imagine that the expatriate population in Manila is much less than a place like Jakarta. Could the tuition charged be quite a bit less? Maybe ISM has some other types of benefits to compensate for the very mediocre salary? It just seems strange.

I understand that money isn't everything, but it is always a consideration. I'd appreciate some info. from current and former ISM educators.

WorldTravel:

Yes, it's normal. If a school wants to interview you, they will put an invite in your mailbox at the Fair.

Jakarta International School (JIS)- Along with a high tax-free salary, you get an annual overseas allowance, a monthly car allowance, and a generous retirement allowance. In addition the cost of living is lower than in most S/E Asian countries, the housing is high-quality, and there are many travel opportunities nearby. Also, for an Asian language, Bahasa Indonesia is probably the easiest to learn (compared to Mandarin, Japanese, etc.) and some expats are almost fluent within a year or 2.

Downside is the pollution and traffic of Jakarta.

Hi everyone,

I've been offered jobs by both of these schools and was hoping to get some informed opinions from some "China veterans" in the know. These schools seem comparable when you look at package and reputation. Although Beijing as a city seems to get a lot of negative publicity because of the pollution. Is Shanghai that much better in terms of pollution and traffic?

Any comments and opinions would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!