I worked in London all through all sorts of bomb threats, evacuations etc. never bothered me.

Hi the Malaysian economy is 60% oil based so with oil plummeting the currency was bound to dive.

But now we are seeing oil companies go bust, production being cut back in expensive places so eventually the oil price will go up. Although Chinese demand is slowing it will pick up. 2 years time MYR back to 5.5 to GBO and 3.6 to USD. PAr for the course when living in a third world country.

Fibonacci wrote:
> I have been reading this forum for a while, but this is my first time
> posting.
>
> I am a Maths teacher who has just spent four years working in a middle
> management position in South East Asia. I have briefly returned to the UK
> for personal reasons. I am moving to a similar role at home, but it is my
> intention to go overseas again. And, I would like to look for a senior
> leadership position when I do.
>
> My wife is asian (I met her when I was overseas). Could this have an effect
> on my employability? She is more qualified than me, but she is not a
> teacher. I have noticed that there seems to be little diversity in
> international school leadership. Very few managers are not married, fewer
> are married to someone of a different ethnicity, and even fewer are gay.
>
> I've heard it said that there is an issue of image. How true is this? I am
> hoping that my limited experience is not representative of the
> international teaching world as a whole.
>
> It goes without saying that these attitudes shouldn't exist, but might I be
> right in thinking that they are less prevalent in so-called 'top tier'
> schools?


When I started overseas everyone was suspiciously white. Diversity being some were from Scotland!

TIA effect. Things have improved (I encouraged this the best I could) but in many parts of the world being gay is illegal and sometimes punishable by death. So hard to get round that one. So homosexual partners have to be kept hidden.

As for Asian wife in my observation it is white female teachers who make that harder than it should be. "He has an Asian wife/gf" is said often like they are inferior. I treat all the same but with a western (white) gf I more is treated a lot better than an "Asian" gf. Often it is assumed that a man with an Asian gf is inferior as he "can't get a western gf". Go figure that bias out! As many find out there is really no difference. Women are women!

Yes avoid.

What happened is that in the UK commission based advice was banned. All.now fees. So many young "financial advisers" (like cockroaches IMHO as so many and hard to eradicate) left UK especially for Asia. Promised huge salaries in Asia they were put on minimum wage for work permit plus commissions. But then they found they were lied to so now are desperate. Will sell own grandmother to the devil for a fiver. They usually know.less about finance than anyone else and only see the huge commissions.

Think Arthur Dailey cross bred with "Loads of Money" (Brits will understand this if older)

It is a brand new "for profit school" located in the "toilet of Malaysia" (as JB is known as in Singapore). Apart from Marlborough College (a high paying well know brand name school) why would anyone work in JB is beyond me. Low pay in JB = misery as you will want to go to Singapore at weekends for some life. BTW most Singaporeans won't go to JB as crime ridden reputation (whether fair or not is arguable).

This old question - in my opinion nothing amazingly different in teaching IB and the Cat 1 courses are generally a waste of time and money - that is in reference to teachers from UK. All the educational drives and philosophy are basically the same just different labels. An outstanding teacher can teach any syllabus after reading the appropriate material - with IB the same.

Cat 1 course are aimed at third world trained teachers who tend to teach "chalk and talk" and I wish IB would create two types of Cat 1 course to better differentiate (!).

Obviously your chances are higher depending on subject wit IB - but anyone who thinks they can teach Bio and Chem at IB I am suspicious of. Generally it is a one subject specialism as the depth of knowledge/enthusiasm and practical knowledge is not sufficient. Although that is something I hate in UK and research clearly shows that subject knowledge of a teacher has the biggest impact on results.

Hi I saw a thread on TES where it seems iPGCE holders could get QTS - a recent change. With videos observations if I remember. Check it out maybe true as current government think pgces are socialist propaganda and that al teachers need are rows of desk and a lot of chalk lol so more flexibility expected. If you get qts then schools would be more interested. Maybe not tier 1 without years of experience - or in a shortage subject of course where even tier 1/2 schools are a bit more flexible. But if true the new route to qts via an ipgce is certainly a boost to British teavhers who want to qualify but not return to uk.

Hi she might mean blacklisted with immigration. If someone in Malaysia leaves before their contract expires an employer can request a 'blacklisting' for an employment pass. This then causes issues with getting new employment within Malaysia, although some employers will pay extra to have that removed if the really like you, or when you exit early come to a financial agreement with old employer they won't blacklist you. It never expires - we had one who was blacklisted. He did a runner from us as well!

Search also will 'black list' you if you accept an offer at a fair, then take another offer etc. That is fair if you break your word.

Its quite simple.

DP is simply the best pre U programme.

MYP is a dogs breakfast.

stands for muddly ysless programme (as most myp grads can't spell or pass exams or think)

Well that is my honest appraisal.

I want to be a brain surgeon. I have a book about it and some saws. Would the OP please make himself available for me to practice.....


It would do the kids he wants to teach a favour lol

Or get a physics degree. Psychology isn't a science

What do you say to a MYP certificate holder?

I will have fries with that.....


OK MYP used as a wrapper for IGCSEs taught in an outstanding school where MYP framework is used to boost understanding and development of all the skills that are essential in life, but are not examined in IGCSE then wow wow wow what an education!

But all MYP I came across are fourth rate schools that went for MYP as they couldn't get a single 'A' at IGCSE as teachers awful. MYP students I have been given for IBDP have never sat an exam. never studied physics or chemistry as biology teachers are cheap and often can't add up as the maths teacher couldn't teach.

In that case MYP students can't get a diploma, and won't be accepted for any other Pre-U programme, So McDonalds for them. I see the parents look so puzzled when we feed back the issues. I always have to say they need to do a pre-IB programme called "IGCSE"

[quote="PsyGuy"]Its pretty common actuallyOnce you hit 50 if your not an admin things start getting harder for you. In addition to caps on immigration issues, schools in general try to stay away from those who are going to have healthcare issues.[/quote]

It is same in UK - if older (like myself) the safe choice is the beaming 25 year old. Except in reality they may fall to pieces under stress (or binge drinking) and have lots of sick leave and I am built like an ox - never take a sickie. I am reliable and produce results way above benchmarks. But no one ever got fired for going for the safe candidate

Now in international ed I have to be SLT although I prefer the classroom though, and I get way above standard results, but such means nothing in interview in a market saturated with youngsters. With such a large choice play safe.

So first tier is never for me.

[quote="PsyGuy"]The default payment is an amortization of payments over a fixed time period for those who are actually in default of their SLC loan.

Yes, you can ask.

Yes, you can propose a payment schedule and they can accept it. You will be happy, but bankers are seldom happy for any reason.

If your going to another country though why would you repay your loans? Just tell them your unemployed and have no money. There will be no documentation to suggest otherwise.[/quote]

That is called financial fraud!

Don't do it yet considering it as we are getting more humanities students who don't know what a test tube looks like!

Bio SL is too hard for them so ESS being considered. Looks ok for the non science types. Matsh studies is the one I want to do but the powers that be say "never it's useless"

[quote="senator"]Sorry, Guys, but let's do a little Tough Love session.

Compared to the tragedies that a lot of people must endure - disease, injury, loss - not getting a job offer is a VERY minor thing.

I am always surprised? Saddened? Disappointed? that so many of the people who share my profession have so little resiliency and mental toughness that they seem to fall to pieces when they do not get an offer of employment.

Buck up! Keep trying and don't quit. Watch the movie "Lincoln" and others in that genre to see what REAL adversity is.

And to the others: STOP BEING ENABLERS.[/quote]

A little harsh as no job = no money! means no food or roof over head so is major and no job for a while makes you less employable. So good reason to be stressed.

I wonder if this year far more teachers from west looking for jobs. Certainly in UK lots of unemployed teachers as schools increase hours and there are less children to teach. PGCE grads numbers keep on going up. Stupid really. This means they look abroad and armies of cheap young teachers flooding the third tier market and good teachers leaving UK going for 1st/2nd tier means more competition despite more schools. Not everyone wants to be in China.

I applied this year for a few jobs mostly to get idea of rates as current school wanted me to stay and were generous. Still I was surprised that only got two interview offers in odd places despite shortage subject + IB. Schools are flooded with good quality applicants and as I am not your standard teacher for tier 1 (I had a life before teaching makes me unattractive to the elite schools it seems as I am risky and a little older - do understand these things I know best way for me into first tier is when I know the head personally) I go for tier 2 and that market is flooded this year.