Shane English Schools, Japan and China

[thai fox]

Hi all,

if anyone has some information regarding Shane English Schools could you please let me know (good or bad).

[Margy]

I wouldn't have any quarms teaching for Shane English School. Reputable school that does the bulk of their recruitment via companies such as Saxoncourt. Saxoncourt would not deal with scam schools etc.

Haven't come across any bad press on Shane English School.

[houzi]

I teach for a Shane school in China and I'd discourage anyone from working for them. The pay is much lower than many other schools, the teachers are shipped out to teach in schools that are often over an hour from the office (if travel time is over an hour, minimal compensation is offered. If less than an hour, nothing is offered. Plus travel time does not count as hours worked). The bosses are tyranical and have little consideration for the private lives of their students. Schedules are changed at whim, my flat mate had his schedule changed five times in five days. The Shane contract is written to benefit the school only and once locked in it is hard to get out of it (to leave on good terms, you must give 3 months notice). Whenever you feel something is unreasonable and that you are being taken advantage of, the contract has some clause to cover the school.
About a quarter of my hours are made up of overtime work but overtime bonuses are only paid every 3 months.
There is no effective chain of command so school managers are free to do what they want. If you have a problem, there is nowhere to go.

Sorry this is not very well structured but I hope it is enough to put you off. There are much better schools!
I should point out that I don't know anything first hand about Shane in Japan, but I hear it's better.

[Margy]

I don't think low wages is a valid reason for having gripes about a school. Teachers know up-front what their wages are, what the travel distances are etc., and it's up to the teacher to accept or move on.

No-one holds a gun to the teachers head saying for them to teach at a school.

Apart from the wages gripe, were you treated fairly at Shane English School? Did they pay your wages on time and honour your contract etc?

[Hypiereon]

Hey Margy, I think I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. While I agree that an employee should know what the wage is going to be before hand, the other things the guy mentions are some of the very concerns I look for when deciding to stay at a school or consider it as a place of employment.

Being shipped out to other schools, non-compensation of travel time, constant switching of class schedules, tyrannical bosses, a school that's not very well structured -- all this sounds to me like the typical problems that are covered up by lots of smiles and promises, and then once you sign you're hit with all this in a very backhanded sort of way.

A good school is more than just adhering to a contract in the way that a good teacher is more than one that just shows up to class every day.

From this guys description, I'd consider myself well-advised to stay away, and recommend this school be sent to the blacklist or at least copied there to give fair warning to people looking to teach in China.

[Margy]

If the facts are explained prior, via contract, verbally or whatever, and we accept them and join the school, then we really have no course for blame. If we get exactly what is presented to us in forms of contracts etc., then there should be no problem.

If I were to teach in Africa as a volunteer with basic accommodation and food provided, do I have a reason to complain just because I think I deserve more? Definitely no if I knew prior to what I was getting involved in?

Whilst a Shane English school contract may favour the school, I'm sure you can agree that 95% of contracts favour the party writing the contract. There are always liability waivers in contracts, and this is nothing new in the world of business.

If you agree to certain conditions, then don't complain afterwards that you now want more. My suggestion would be to move on and find another school. My first teaching post was for a great school, but lousy pay. I don't have any gripes about them, because I knew what I was getting beforehand. I did leave after a few months however.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

[Hypiereon]

I agree wholeheartedly with you that if you sign a contract and the school fulfills the contract, then you have no complaint about the contract. However, the complaint against the school was more than just about the contract.

If you come to work for me and I fulfill the contract but then I also come off with a bad attitude, don't lift a finger to help you do your job correctly, ask you to teach some of your hours away from the school (never mentioned it in the contract but you owe me the hours so what are you complaining about?) and then refuse to compensate you for them (also not in contract but again, you owe me teaching hours here right?! So what's the big deal about an hour out of your life there and again on the way back? So what if I didn't mention it to you before!)

Then, I threaten to withhold your salary if you refuse to travel, and generally make your life as miserable as possible in other ways if you even begin to THINK of giving me any lip about what was or wasn't in the contract. "By the way, your schedule this week has changed - sorry I didn't mention it to you before - you're already late for classes today and we'll be docking your pay accordingly; but hey, if you still want full salary and since you missed those classes you can now make them up by working hours on Saturdays. Had plans for Saturday eh? Oh well, sorry about that, too, but you work for me for this many hours a week you see - it's in the contract!"

"Oops, sorry, schedule changed again! Hahahaha. So sorry. You're now going to be teaching several more classes today, but don't worry about it not being in the contract - the hours are in the contract though so you'll just have to teach them. Now smile like a good little girl and off you go! That's right. I'm fulfilling the contract, so you don't have any complaints now - just you remember that. Good girl."

And on and on and ON it goes. Think this doesn't happen - you're kidding yourself. The point of houzi's post was more than just a contract. So dont get all bold letters about "a contract" and try reading the guy's post as a bigger picture. Look, I understand that an unfavorably written contract - all other "on the job" conditions being fine - is not a bad thing. It's the nature of doing business on their terms so to speak - as you said "95% of the contracts favor the party writing the contract." An unfavorable contract being the nasty tip of a huge problem iceburg though, and you're suddenly running against a problem school everyone else would do well to avoid doing any business with.

I hope you understand what's really being said here. I'm not faulting any school for a poorly written contract a foreigner unwittingly signs either because they really want the job or are uneducated about contracts. You don't see me shaming schools for writing bad contracts. On the contrary, I've done my utmost to come at it from the other side and tried to educate people about how to bargain and rewrite contracts. I've criticized contracts in general (not schools) as being poor, but contracts will only stay poor as long as foreigners are willing to sign them. Once a foreigner does go ahead and sign, I'm hands-off the whole deal. They signed it - they can't expect any more than the contract says with few exceptions - SUCH AS - no teacher should have to put up with being bullied by a tyrannical boss, being pushed around on schedules, and all because the school has a piece of paper on their side.

A teaching job is more than just contracts. It is the people you work for, the people you work with, and the conditions under which you are expected to do your job. While it is true that the dissatisfied person can always just quit, it does not lessen the negative remarks made about a school, and may still serve as a warning to other teachers.

To summarize everything that's been said about this school so far: "Hey, this school fulfills it's contracts. They'll treat you like shit when you get here, but hey, the contract is upheld." And that's what I'm saying as well. It is a warning to those who don't want to be mistreated, even if the school does happen to fulfill a contract.

[Raoul]

Oh My God!

If you haven't seen any bad press on the Shane schools, then you just aren't looking. The internet is simply crawling with complaints about these places. Has been for years.

Like most of the chain English mills in China, there can be some local variation depending upon the franchise owner and management. Some are better than others. But there seems to be more bad than good.

Be especially leery of the Shane school in Suzhou, near Shanghai. A real stinker with a long and sordid history.

[exported_kiwi]

If wasn't for the potential for paper cuts, I'd wipe my a** with the damn things!
My 2 cents worth, nuff said!
Take care folks.

[suggs]

DO NOT TOUCH SHANE WITH A BARGE POLE!

I work for Shane in Japan and without a doubt they are a bunch of cowboys who ride their staff for every yen that they can get. They basically employ every single trick in the eikaiwa handbook of skanking your teachers. Some highlights include-

Overcharging on their apartments by up to 25,000 yen (250 dollars) per month.

Schools up to 2 hours away. This includes claiming that commutes over 1 and a quater hours away are paid over time yet only including time spent RIDING trains - discounting getting to/ from stations and waiting on platforms - inshort, no overtime payments.

Not employing cover teachers and expecting staff to cover on their days off. This is combined with a hideously complicated overtime system which allows people to work all but three or four days a month and not recieve any overtime.

Sending people to schools 2 hours from their homes and not paying time spent not teaching (because of course, you can pop home on a ninty minute gap between lessons.)

Up to six hours of teaching daily with only 30 mins paid prep time.

A (personally) highly misleading recruitment policy - I was told a lot of things that turned out to be different when I arrived in Japan - but then again, if they told the truth, nobody would work for them.

Rock bottom staff morale - they are heamorraging teachers. People regularly disappear the day after pay day (if you give due notice, they will of course take every yen they can any way they can) and in some areas there is a staff turnover of 20 percent PER MONTH. They are heamorraging teachers because they offer the worst working conditions in Japan - you are better off working for NOVA!