The school runs an English camp at the school in the summers. It's not in the teachers contract, but Holley's ask the teachers at the initial interview if they would be willing to work at their English camp. All teachers agree to it of course, because they don't think anything of it at the time. What the Holleys don't conveniently mention is that they will with hold severance if the teacher doesn't do the camp. The teachers learn this later from the other teachers who have been there a little longer. If the camp was in the contract then fair enough, but it's not, so the request by the Holleys at the interview is not really binding. All a teacher has to do at Gwangju foreign school to get severance is teach his or her assigned classes for the duration of their contract, and nothing more. Now the labour board in Gwangju is very willing to step in and mediate to ensure a school honours it's contract, and they would come down hard on the Holleys for with holding severance from someone who refused to do the camp. Unfortunately for the teachers at Gwangju foreign school, and fortunately for the Holleys the teachers are insecure and are afraid to make a stand. It's understandable, because many don't want jeopardize their jobs , and are caught in a limbo of not knowing wether they will win their case or not. I don't know why the Holleys don't put the camp in their contract to legitmize it, so they don't have to resort to subterfuge. Sure beats me. Any way they are aware of the insecurity of the teachers, and for some unknown reason they seem to feel it's better to underhandedly bleed them for as much extra money as possible.
There is one teacher at the school who refused to do the camp. I gathered from talking to him that he had to sign a shorter contract so that the Holleys would not have to pay him severance. Geeze the owners got the place sown up real good to avoid the normal legitimate payements that they should make to their teachers. The teacher may or may not have known what was going on, but anyway he should not have been short changed the way he was, and that to me and anyone else who can see through these manouverings shows what kind of cut throat buisness people actually run the place.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Gwangju Foreign school
The school has only recently adopted the national pension for it's employees. By law it should have been implemented long ago. National pension offices can be a bit slack at times, and overlook certain buisnesses. Maybe it did this with Gwangju Foreign school. Who knows, but for an Institution that supposedly prides itself as an International school ,the laws of the land with regards to financial advantage for it's emplyees should have been obeyed.
Hogwans and English Institutes always find ways to skirt the law and exploit their employees, but for Gwangju Foreign school to do this is unacceptable. ( otherwise it's nothing but second rate and money grubbing ) We the teachers all had a meeting with Mrs Holley about the national pension plan, and she had the temerity to say that permission was given for the school to not have to offer the National Pension. The only way a buisness can get out of having to offer the national pension is if it has an alternative scheme. The school had no such scheme, so there is no way it could have legally sidestepped it's obligations. Now only a cretin ,retard, brainless dickhead would stand infront of her employees, and brazenly lie about getting her special permission when in fact no such permission to suspend the national pension was ever given.
Stone the crows. It just goes to show how little class the Holley's have. I don't even think they know what the word class means. Totaly lacking in being professional too. More than anything it shows that their priorities are in to making money however which way they can and not in being educators.
A provision is for the employer to match the certain percentage deducted from one's paycheck for the National Pension so that come time for individuals from Canada, the U.S. and a few other countries to leave the country they recieve back all deductions doubled.
In effect it's obvious that the Holley's didn't offer the national pension plan from it's inception, because they were too cheap to make the matching contributions for the pension deductions.
It begs the question of why are they offering the National Pension now. Did President No Mu Young ring them up, and tell them to get on the ball, or are they facing an audit of some kind. It would sure be nice to know.
There is a lot of money those employees from Canada, and the U.S. who had been at the school for over three years could have accumulated if the Holleys had had the National pension. I have worked at a place that had the National pension plan, and my co-workers from Canada recieved lump sum payments of $5000 each for just over 3 years work. They recieved this on top of their severance. It's really low down scum that will deny it's employees the benefits that are theirs by right. Holleys are too busy lining their own pockets to be worried about matters like this that benefit their own emoloyees.
Downside of this shemozzle is "If they can lie about this, what else have they been lying about"
The pension fund is a controversial thing in Korean politics, because of the billions of dollars tied up in it. The government would like to get their hands on the money, and the politician who has the portfollio handling the pension has been critized for not using the proper means to increase the amount of money in the pot so to speak. Apparently he lost some money through an injudicious decision, and has been under scrutiny ever since.This is similar to Japan with the Post office savings. Seems as though the masses of people using the post office for savings exceeds the number of people using banks. Japanese politicians want to get their hand on the money as well, and this issue is a platform of all candidates come election time.
Hogwans and English Institutes always find ways to skirt the law and exploit their employees, but for Gwangju Foreign school to do this is unacceptable. ( otherwise it's nothing but second rate and money grubbing ) We the teachers all had a meeting with Mrs Holley about the national pension plan, and she had the temerity to say that permission was given for the school to not have to offer the National Pension. The only way a buisness can get out of having to offer the national pension is if it has an alternative scheme. The school had no such scheme, so there is no way it could have legally sidestepped it's obligations. Now only a cretin ,retard, brainless dickhead would stand infront of her employees, and brazenly lie about getting her special permission when in fact no such permission to suspend the national pension was ever given.
Stone the crows. It just goes to show how little class the Holley's have. I don't even think they know what the word class means. Totaly lacking in being professional too. More than anything it shows that their priorities are in to making money however which way they can and not in being educators.
A provision is for the employer to match the certain percentage deducted from one's paycheck for the National Pension so that come time for individuals from Canada, the U.S. and a few other countries to leave the country they recieve back all deductions doubled.
In effect it's obvious that the Holley's didn't offer the national pension plan from it's inception, because they were too cheap to make the matching contributions for the pension deductions.
It begs the question of why are they offering the National Pension now. Did President No Mu Young ring them up, and tell them to get on the ball, or are they facing an audit of some kind. It would sure be nice to know.
There is a lot of money those employees from Canada, and the U.S. who had been at the school for over three years could have accumulated if the Holleys had had the National pension. I have worked at a place that had the National pension plan, and my co-workers from Canada recieved lump sum payments of $5000 each for just over 3 years work. They recieved this on top of their severance. It's really low down scum that will deny it's employees the benefits that are theirs by right. Holleys are too busy lining their own pockets to be worried about matters like this that benefit their own emoloyees.
Downside of this shemozzle is "If they can lie about this, what else have they been lying about"
The pension fund is a controversial thing in Korean politics, because of the billions of dollars tied up in it. The government would like to get their hands on the money, and the politician who has the portfollio handling the pension has been critized for not using the proper means to increase the amount of money in the pot so to speak. Apparently he lost some money through an injudicious decision, and has been under scrutiny ever since.This is similar to Japan with the Post office savings. Seems as though the masses of people using the post office for savings exceeds the number of people using banks. Japanese politicians want to get their hand on the money as well, and this issue is a platform of all candidates come election time.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Christopher Paul Neil
The school owners are a little shifty, and cheap when it comes to money being put back into the school. Conditions for the students could and should be much better for the amount of money the parents have to pay. Every classroom should have a TV, but doesn't. The few TVs that are in the rooms were donated by parents. Parents are called on to donate things which the Holley's should be supplying. The Holleys are very good at crying poverty, and about how their school is always in the red. Point of fact though is that anyone who is going to run a buisness for 8 years in the red has got to be cracked in the head or lying. If they are having financial problems why the hell don't they sell their imported foreign cars.
Students are upbeat and positive like highschool students the world over. They could probably survive anywhere, but I think they all harbour resentment of sorts over the amount of money they have to pay for dilapidated buildings and their very limited playing facilities.
The teachers are excellent, and give their best. The administration though sucks to high hell. Present highschool principal has no clue when it comes to administration. Most people think he has his head up his arse. He was a teacher, but got bumped up to being head adminstrator. Rest of the senior staff tried to help him, but he wanted to go it his way. He subsequently alienated the rest of the staff by ignoring the help offered to him, and is now the butt of jokes from the the rest of the student body and staff.
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The pedophile Christopher Paul Neil was a teacher at Gwangju foreign school for a short time. He behaved no different than any other teacher at the school, nor did he dress different from any other teacher at the school. He was generally liked by both the other teachers and the students. Nothing he did gave anyone an indication of the things he was accused of. Gees. He loved to sing at karaokes, talk and drink. Just a normal guy from all outward appearances. One of the pictures on the interpol site was a dead ringer for him, but the others I dunno. He sure has put Gwangju Foreign School on the map, for what it's worth. The newspapers had already checked the school homepage to confirm that he was staff, so there was no point in the school trying to remove his profile. Other media outlets picked up on this and made a mockery of the school for doing so.
Too bad the other schools in Korea where he taught were mum about him. Would have given everyone more insight into what made him tick
Other reports say he was hung out to dry, because Interpol made a big thing about him and the unswirling of his face. Thai police have stated that there are pedophiles out and about who have commited worse things than he has, but that they had to focus on him because of the media attention and publicity. http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:HpthnFlM570J:www.parisangel.com/BSYS1000eportfolio/BSYS1000word.docx+gwangju+Foreign+school&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=120&gl=us
The school was inundated with News media chasing the story of Christopher Paul Neil, and It was felt necessary to bolt the doors to keep reporters out.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dih6tt6ZYdFR/gwangju
The news articles coming from Gwangju Foreign school were quoted as coming from Mrs Myoung. Now there is no Mrs Myoung working for Gwangju Foreign school.Myoung is the maiden name of Mrs Holley and it was she who was doing all the public relations work with the newspapers. Find that strange that she would not use her real name when being quoted. Another Korean duplicity thing.
Students are upbeat and positive like highschool students the world over. They could probably survive anywhere, but I think they all harbour resentment of sorts over the amount of money they have to pay for dilapidated buildings and their very limited playing facilities.
The teachers are excellent, and give their best. The administration though sucks to high hell. Present highschool principal has no clue when it comes to administration. Most people think he has his head up his arse. He was a teacher, but got bumped up to being head adminstrator. Rest of the senior staff tried to help him, but he wanted to go it his way. He subsequently alienated the rest of the staff by ignoring the help offered to him, and is now the butt of jokes from the the rest of the student body and staff.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pedophile Christopher Paul Neil was a teacher at Gwangju foreign school for a short time. He behaved no different than any other teacher at the school, nor did he dress different from any other teacher at the school. He was generally liked by both the other teachers and the students. Nothing he did gave anyone an indication of the things he was accused of. Gees. He loved to sing at karaokes, talk and drink. Just a normal guy from all outward appearances. One of the pictures on the interpol site was a dead ringer for him, but the others I dunno. He sure has put Gwangju Foreign School on the map, for what it's worth. The newspapers had already checked the school homepage to confirm that he was staff, so there was no point in the school trying to remove his profile. Other media outlets picked up on this and made a mockery of the school for doing so.
Too bad the other schools in Korea where he taught were mum about him. Would have given everyone more insight into what made him tick
Other reports say he was hung out to dry, because Interpol made a big thing about him and the unswirling of his face. Thai police have stated that there are pedophiles out and about who have commited worse things than he has, but that they had to focus on him because of the media attention and publicity. http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:HpthnFlM570J:www.parisangel.com/BSYS1000eportfolio/BSYS1000word.docx+gwangju+Foreign+school&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=120&gl=us
The school was inundated with News media chasing the story of Christopher Paul Neil, and It was felt necessary to bolt the doors to keep reporters out.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dih6tt6ZYdFR/gwangju
The news articles coming from Gwangju Foreign school were quoted as coming from Mrs Myoung. Now there is no Mrs Myoung working for Gwangju Foreign school.Myoung is the maiden name of Mrs Holley and it was she who was doing all the public relations work with the newspapers. Find that strange that she would not use her real name when being quoted. Another Korean duplicity thing.
Summer camp at Gwangju foreign school
The school is an International school owned by Mr and Mrs Holley. The school runs a summer camp for students from 1st grade in elementry school up to any age in highschool. It's expensive for what the students get in the way of English instruction, and some classes tend to be overloaded. All good English camps limit their class sizes to 10 or 11 students, because ESL teachers can only effectively teach to a limited number of students in a camp setting. Camps which load more than 11-12 students into a class are giving them a poor return for what their parents pay. I have worked in many different camps, and they all refuse to overload classes. The Holleys don't employ this philosophy with their camp. They instead overload classes where they can, even though it's at the expense of the students learning English. Profit is their main concern. I taught at a summer camp at Gwangju foreign school, in a class with 16 students .
The material provided for the teachers and the students is quite poor. The school photocopies useless texts which is often too dificult for the students. All good camps provide good teachers manuals and text books and they allways research the material quite thoroughly. There are some good texts available with relevant teachers guides, and the better camps seem to generally use the same iff not similar texts. The camp at this place will use any material they can get their hands on. Their atittude is that it's effectiveness or inneffectiveness is completely irrelevant, just so long as they get the expensive fees that the many unsuspecting parents are willing to pay.
A good camp for parents from a christian background is the Pharohs camp run by Handong university in Pohang. It's a little more expensive than the Holley's camp, but the students stay in dormitories. The native speaker teachers have a Korean assistant who sometimes attend the classes, but whose role is mainly to assist students during meal times and in the evenings before they sleep. English learning is efficent, because classes don't exceed 11 students. Texts and stationary are provided, and there are a lot of meaningful activities for the students to be involved in. Drama productions are required of all teachers, and there are many other activities that both the teachers and students participate in to-gether. When I was there one teacher managed to train her class to do an excellent mini musical version of "Oliver". The audience of teachers parents and students were awe struck with the quality of the performance. (All a- cappella)
Another good camp for families in the Cholla region is the camp at Gyeongsang National University in Chinju. It runs for 4 weeks, and students stay on campus in the dormitories, but go home on the weekends. Again class size is limited to 11 students at most, and they are streamed i.e. students take tests to ascertain what class they should attend. Assistant Korean teachers are at the camp to help with the class work, and the the sleeping arrangements for the students. They are also a go between when there are language communication problems. The expat teachers at this camp are heavily involved in all the students activities. Drama productions are required by all classes, and they are performed on stage for the whole student and teacher audience. There are other activities such as sports competitions, sing along nights, and science projects. Telephone No 82-55-751-5141/ 6245- Fax : 82-55-751-6160
Changshin college in Masan runs a camp similar to the Kyungsan national university camp. Most of the students attending the camp live localy, but arrangements are made for others coming from out of town to slep in the college dormitories. This camp is modelled on the Gyeongsang national university in Chinju. A staff member at the college was a former teacher at the university in .Telephone Numbers 055 2503000, 2501277,2501280
YBM Sisa also runs an excellent camp two week camp in the summers and winters.
The teachers at these camps are come from all over the English speaking world. Some are already in Korea, and others come from their home countries on a vacation and to work while they travel. A special working visa is required by immigration, but it's easily obtained.
The Holley's camp isn't cheap, and is probably more expensive than the above camps.
All teachers working at camps are paid a considerable amount of money, and they earn it. Teachers at Holleys camp don't get a penny, and they work as hard if not harder than the teachers at any of the other camps. Holleys make enough money from their camps, and the fact that they aren't willing to give token payment to their teachers is because they would rather syphon off the profits for their own luxuries. It's also symptomatic of the fact that they haven't upgraded the facilities at the school since it's inception.
Teachers should be paid at least the equivalent of $2000 for their time and duties at the camp.
The material provided for the teachers and the students is quite poor. The school photocopies useless texts which is often too dificult for the students. All good camps provide good teachers manuals and text books and they allways research the material quite thoroughly. There are some good texts available with relevant teachers guides, and the better camps seem to generally use the same iff not similar texts. The camp at this place will use any material they can get their hands on. Their atittude is that it's effectiveness or inneffectiveness is completely irrelevant, just so long as they get the expensive fees that the many unsuspecting parents are willing to pay.
A good camp for parents from a christian background is the Pharohs camp run by Handong university in Pohang. It's a little more expensive than the Holley's camp, but the students stay in dormitories. The native speaker teachers have a Korean assistant who sometimes attend the classes, but whose role is mainly to assist students during meal times and in the evenings before they sleep. English learning is efficent, because classes don't exceed 11 students. Texts and stationary are provided, and there are a lot of meaningful activities for the students to be involved in. Drama productions are required of all teachers, and there are many other activities that both the teachers and students participate in to-gether. When I was there one teacher managed to train her class to do an excellent mini musical version of "Oliver". The audience of teachers parents and students were awe struck with the quality of the performance. (All a- cappella)
Another good camp for families in the Cholla region is the camp at Gyeongsang National University in Chinju. It runs for 4 weeks, and students stay on campus in the dormitories, but go home on the weekends. Again class size is limited to 11 students at most, and they are streamed i.e. students take tests to ascertain what class they should attend. Assistant Korean teachers are at the camp to help with the class work, and the the sleeping arrangements for the students. They are also a go between when there are language communication problems. The expat teachers at this camp are heavily involved in all the students activities. Drama productions are required by all classes, and they are performed on stage for the whole student and teacher audience. There are other activities such as sports competitions, sing along nights, and science projects. Telephone No 82-55-751-5141/ 6245- Fax : 82-55-751-6160
Changshin college in Masan runs a camp similar to the Kyungsan national university camp. Most of the students attending the camp live localy, but arrangements are made for others coming from out of town to slep in the college dormitories. This camp is modelled on the Gyeongsang national university in Chinju. A staff member at the college was a former teacher at the university in .Telephone Numbers 055 2503000, 2501277,2501280
YBM Sisa also runs an excellent camp two week camp in the summers and winters.
The teachers at these camps are come from all over the English speaking world. Some are already in Korea, and others come from their home countries on a vacation and to work while they travel. A special working visa is required by immigration, but it's easily obtained.
The Holley's camp isn't cheap, and is probably more expensive than the above camps.
All teachers working at camps are paid a considerable amount of money, and they earn it. Teachers at Holleys camp don't get a penny, and they work as hard if not harder than the teachers at any of the other camps. Holleys make enough money from their camps, and the fact that they aren't willing to give token payment to their teachers is because they would rather syphon off the profits for their own luxuries. It's also symptomatic of the fact that they haven't upgraded the facilities at the school since it's inception.
Teachers should be paid at least the equivalent of $2000 for their time and duties at the camp.
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