I just answered your other thread,

Reading this one I have to ask what passport you ho;d, it does make a difference to some schools

The problem that both countries have in common is getting your money out. Seychelles have strict controls and you are reduced to shady deals with touriststo change your money for a real currency. In Vietnam you have the additional problem of not getting the money that you have been promised.

Banks in both countries will not change local currency into a strong currency you can transfer out. You are reduced to money changers in both places.

Only 1 or 2 schools in the Seychelles including the one that taught lessons in a parked bus when I was there. Very few good schools in HCMC and many nightmares.

I would still say that living in HCMC is better than the island which can get very small after a few months

Hi Grumpy

Best to do a forum search and read the reviews in the pay part of the site.

You are right about the number of schools chasing customers

Small Primary school in NW part of the city. Like many schools in HCMC it was built to make a large housing development easier to sell. Now that all apartments have been sold it has been sold off to Cognita. Western staff are becoming rarer and are used to sell the school, most teaching is done by Asian staff who are much cheaper.

It is now being touted as a feeder school for ISHCMC so expect PYP soon.

They used to pay well and keep staff happy, now Cognita are in charge I would tread with caution.

Tiny Prinary school that continues to struggle. Great place to work if you do not mind the yearly panic about will they be here next year.

Money is low and when numbers are low they try to talk you into a drop "for the good of the school".

Is it better than RISS? Anywhere is better than RISS

It depends on the school, RISS last year made offers to twice as many teachers to what they needed because they knew that any teacher who did some research would not turn up.

This year they have advertised many jobs that do not exist. When the teachers asked why jobs had been advertised when they were on a 2 year contract, they were told it was a contingency measure.

Be careful of any school in HCMC that makes you pay for flights.

The place has gotten worse, The first thing the new head did was sack almost all promoted staff.

This year he has sacked 4 more for various spurious reasons including a massive whitchhunt over a web-site. The school makes many promises and then breaks them on a whim.

The new head made many offers at the Dubai fair and then appointed cheaper staff at the Bangkok fair. The school is offering bounties to any staff member who can convince qualified teachers to come there.

All staff have a 80% teaching load with added after-school activities. The HR staff always refuse to pay the full air-fare, saying that they could have booked it cheaper.

The old Head, Alun Thomas, spent years trying to fight for fair treatment for the teachers and failed. the new Head, Bruce Robinson, tries to outdo the board in treating teachers badly. Secondary has 32 staff, they are advertising 25 of those posts with some staff not knowing they were leaving until they saw jobs advertised. The old staff were then told that it was a contingency measure.

Do Not Go Anywhere near this school. It is a career breaker

It seems that the place is improving. I think the OP would like to know about the hours and wages if you could find that info.

My info about the school is quite old

I don't know a lot about them.

They used to be a bit of a joke school that employed Back-Packers. The kids study half the day in English and half the day in Vietnamese.

The school fees are very low so I would expect that o be reflected in the wages. As the school has got bigger they have started to try to employ International qualified teacher but it seems like only overseas trained vietnamese and SEAsian teachers are staying more than a couple of months

[quote="PsyGuy"]@Walter

"Years" refers to cumulative years, not consecutive years.[/quote]

SSMT......

They made 9 offers at the Dubai fair and then offered 16 jobs at BKK, Last year 3 teachers bought flights to HCMC and were then told that they were not needed.

The only times that Bruce is lying is when his lips are moving. They know that many teachers will do some research and not arrive so they always make more offers than there are jobs.

They always sack a few teachers during the last week of term to try to balance things.

There is a school in Vietnam that is imfamous for shorting staff on flight money and for making staff wait so long for settling in payment that the teachers often had tp take out loans from the school and pay interest.

They always say that the teacher has paid to much for the flight and supply a quote from a local agency that is very cheap. they then split the difference.

The same school has been knowb to sack paople and retain the last months pay.

Pick up the phone and talk to the head of School A, ask about when you will get comfirmation.

If they cannot speak to you for any reason then take the second affer.

I just picked up the phone and talked to a friend in HCMC.

I stand by what I said about Cognita. I also hear that CIS have gone down the second school route. CISV or CVIS is a new school that is mopping up student who have money but no English.

[quote="PermanentXpat"]Annie T, don't know where you got your information from about Cognita having anything to do with SSIS, but it's false. Time will bear this out.[/quote]

I got the information from a senior member of staff at the school, PMH started the school as a loss-leader to attract people to live there, now that it has served that purpose it will have to start making a profit.

I have heard the quote about it not being a profit centre many times, how long do you think it can remain losing money?

I do hope that you are right, time will tell.