Dear Stars,
I did not work for them, however I was hired to work for them in
November 2008, after leaving Barcelona for Houston. My contract would
begin in mid-January 2009. Since I was in Houston and so close, I
decided to take a week's vacation to Bogota to visit the school. I
stayed with a teacher who'd been working for IH Bogota for I think
four or five months already. When she found out that I was going to be
teaching there in January, she said, "Oh gosh we have to talk." I'd
just arrived and I was super excited about being in Bogota and
teaching there in Jan so I didn't want her chat to bring me down. So
avoiding her the next morning, I went straight off to my Spanish
class.
The school was GORGEOUS, cute little patio with fountain, wooden
floors, beautiful tiling, I was stoked! but... it was cold and empty.
Not a single student in sight. And I thought hmm... must be off
season... I met my Spanish teacher and discovered that my group
intensive conversation class, would be just me and him. He told me
isn't is great you're going to get a private class for a group
intensive price? I wasn't too happy really but tried to remain
cheery. I had expected and was looking forward to the dynamics of a
great conversation class. I asked him why there were no other students
and he said, well I'll tell you but you have to keep it a secret. I
was like uh ok... this is so weird but ok. And he said, the school has
not advertised. No one knows about our programs or our classes, not in
the English department or in our Spanish department. And I thought
hmm... maybe he doesn't know the full story.
When I got home that day after 4 hours of just me and this dude, I was
exhausted, and keen to share my weird experience of the school and
hear my roommate's thoughts as well. When I told her, she shook her
head and told me: (James, please chime in if my version of Ivy's
experience is a bit off, it's been several months now):
1. they lied to her about helping with the process of getting her
status and also that she would have status. when she arrived she
discovered that the school could not guarantee her status and she'd be
kind of illegal. partially legal via some loophole in the law, but not
fully legal and therefore paid under the table.
2. they needed her to sign her contract and instead of telling her
this, they signed it for her. They forged her signature. By they she
meant the owner of the school (some guy named Alejandro) not the DOS.
when she asked why they'd forged her signature, they said oh it's not
a big deal, we couldn't find you around the school one day so we just
did it for you. she was nervous about what other documents they would
sign for her.
3. because the school had not advertised, there were no English
language students. the teachers were given company classes instead.
which is fine, however come december they had run out of company
contracts as well. so teachers were expected to take a low-paid months
vacation, but be on-call just in case, and stay in Bogota to do
administrative tasks around the school!
These were her three main beefs. I met other teachers there and they
all had similar horror stories. when the learned I'd be teaching
there come January they just shook their head and said, let me tell
you.... They had all been lied to about getting their status sorted
out,and ended up being only partially legal. were even paid under the
table (James maybe you can speak more to this, when you have time of
course!)
One teacher had been promised two weeks free transitional housing,
when he arrived his promised temp apartment was inhabitable, missing
key necessities in the bathroom and kitchen. Another couple of
teachers felt as though the school was very unsupportive. Whenever
they'd present questions or concerns about payment, medial assistance,
work/immigration status papers, they would get short ambiguous
answers.
I think a majority of the teachers I spoke with believed the DOS was
not at fault, and did have their best interest at heart. And that he
was just as shocked if not overwhelmed by all the mishaps. From the
story I heard from the DOS, it seemed as though IH Barcelona had
dumped the reponsibility on him to be the DOS, he thought he was going
to be there temporarily, 2/3 months max.
Most of the teachers I spoke with thought the owner was a crook, just
out to make money, but knew nothing about running a school.
Ah another point, no one was available to listen to the teacher's
grievances. They'd had meetings, spoken up , someone even came from
Barcelona to hear them. But nothing i guess changed.
I'm glad I took a trip down there to see for myself, luckily I was
close enough to make the trip (Houston is only a 4 hr. plane ride from
Bogota, not that long if you're from the US!). Most of the teachers
were British who'd come all the way there from Europe, going on IH's
reputation alone. They didn't really have the capacity to take a
preview of the school. It was really sad and kind of frustrating to
see such a beautiful school with a name like IH on it, deserted and
full of such unhappy teachers.
I did not actually work there, so some of my recounts might be
slightly off. But basically I encountered loads of legitimately
unhappy, angry teachers. I meant to share my thoughts earlier in the
year, but got tied up with looking for work elsewhere. Also, I figured
they'd have their act together come the new year, since so many
teachers had complained and they were in the process of hiring
additional teachers. Sigh... My apologies, my dear stars.
Anyway, I hope IH Bogota does become a great school. It's got so much
potential and Bogota is such an amazing, lovely, beautiful,
interesting city.
Best,
Selina
