Khazakstan: Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools
Started the NIS conversation
As the person who started this Thread of posts I found it interesting to read all of the comments. I have now been in Kazakhstan since the end of August. I have found some of the posts on target and some slightly exaggerated for the negative. The school in fact does not pay airfare up front but it was reimbursed up to $5000 round trip or $2500 one way after 10 days. They also pay half of the $2000 settling money (minus 10% taxes) after 10 days. You get a second round trip flight to your choice of destinations in the middle of the year (up to roundtrip $5000) After 90 days we received our second half of the settling money. Now as far as interviews and what we really got when we got here. I actually agree that NIS said a lot of things that were complete fabrications to make you think things were happening when indeed they are not funded, supported or even have plans of funding or supporting. For example Libraries as mentioned are not funded for books to be purchased, Art classes are expecting students who pay tuition to buy their own art materials, any extra projects like after school clubs receive no financial support and if a project is requested or Olympiads or some other activity is being done by you or your team there is no real support for that either. There is a communist system still in place. The teachers do their jobs and do not ask questions. If the administration says to come in and work 7 days a week they do. My school has a particularly out of date director. The director is not kind and has no concern for the staff as far as we can see. Staff is purposely demeaned and humiliated for the sake of correction and this is just the accepted way to behave. Having said all of that the fact is we make 5 to 10 times what the average local staff earn and we only work 5 days a week 9 hours a day. We have a free accommodation and the school does actually pick you up and drop you off at the airport every time you come and go. I work with great people and outside of the administration they are open to learning and want to be good teachers. The School governing body at the Astana level is beginning to realize they will have to at some point (probably not this year) start to meet the demands of the foreign staff for needed changes. This is a very complicated process they have created and as long as their leadership is the old regime in mentality these things may or may not get better. I have worked in a school prior to this that promised the moon and delivered nothing. There will be no perfect school ever anywhere. The kids here are so good and kind. They are respectful and hard working. Yes they are tested in and actually are very bright. They stand when teachers walk in the room and still raise their hands to answer questions. If they are disrespectful they will immediately apologize when it is pointed out. Their parents for the most part do buy the supplies needed and I find their eagerness to learn and their respectful behavior refreshing. I know I have babbled on for a while but do not be scared off by the bad comments. Their will always be trade offs. This is not for everyone. If you are not sure then do not come here. It is not for the weak. And side note on culture...Either learn russian or kazakh or be prepared to use a lot of sign language and google translate the local people really are locals and they did not learn english because they heard you were coming.
Thanks for the update after having been there since August. I am looking into this program as well and am curious as to whether you would do it all over again. There is a lot of misinformation. Some say you work 5.5 days, some say you work 5 days but 9 hours per day. Also, how is getting around the city? Do you primarily take buses or can affordable apartments be found within close proximity to the school? I may have overlooked it but which city are you working in? Do you have solid internet in your apartment and if not is there reasonably priced internet cafes with fast connections (I also teach online so this would be good to know whether I can keep this up or not for trying to quickly download students' papers, etc.). Lastly, I can't find the application area via NIS' website but did find it on TeachAnywhere.com, is that how you went through the process and did you sign just a one-year contract with the option to extend or do they only offer two-year contracts? Thanks and I hope you're still enjoying it (how much time off did you get during the winter break?).
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bluesealkz
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:10 am
Work day is from Monday to Friday for international staff. Days are long, typically coming in before 8 and leaving after 5. Workload is variable, anywhere between 10 and 20 lessons per week. I've even heard as low as 8 in some schools and subjects. The schools are open on Saturday for students and local staff--not sure if the Saturday schedule is the same across every school, but our students are here for most of the day.
Public transportation is available, and it's very, very cheap, but it's also crowded and seemingly random. An hour might pass with no bus or minivan, only to have three show up one after another. Gypsy taxis (essentially hitchhiking) are one of the main modes of transport, but they cost significantly more. Be prepared to haggle, particularly in the larger towns and cities.
Apartments really run the gamut--some are really, really nice and others are basically squalid. The school is reluctant to help teachers move for a range of reasons, not all of them good. Internet can be iffy, but mine has always been ok. Wired, and nowhere near as fast as you might expect, but certainly serviceable for Skype and streaming video. Avoid internet cafes, as they're mostly filled with prepubescent boys playing shooting games.
The reviews on ISR give a pretty balanced appraisal--both positive and negative.
Public transportation is available, and it's very, very cheap, but it's also crowded and seemingly random. An hour might pass with no bus or minivan, only to have three show up one after another. Gypsy taxis (essentially hitchhiking) are one of the main modes of transport, but they cost significantly more. Be prepared to haggle, particularly in the larger towns and cities.
Apartments really run the gamut--some are really, really nice and others are basically squalid. The school is reluctant to help teachers move for a range of reasons, not all of them good. Internet can be iffy, but mine has always been ok. Wired, and nowhere near as fast as you might expect, but certainly serviceable for Skype and streaming video. Avoid internet cafes, as they're mostly filled with prepubescent boys playing shooting games.
The reviews on ISR give a pretty balanced appraisal--both positive and negative.
The facts from someone who has been in NIS for a year
It's not paradise and it hasn't been easy, but I, like most of the people I've been working with, are coming back for a second year.
The good things are the students and the local teachers - all lovely, helpful and thoughtful. The contract is adhered to strictly. You get exactly what it says on the can.
However, the problems start when you interpret the words of the contract: 56 days paid holiday a year means one thing to your average westerner, to your KZ school accountant that means 56 days paid according to their convoluted formula which makes little sense. It adds up to maybe a few hundred dollars short of what you expected but costs them a whole heap of trust and confidence. "Public holidays aren't paid but you won't lose any money" is typical advice from NIS. There is health insurance but sick days are paid at some tiny fraction of a normal day's pay. Everything is a mystery, but on the whole it works out well and it is possible to save most of what you earn. There are no delays in paying out for 4 single airfares a year, settlement allowance and regular pay.
The less good parts are the weather - count on November to March being spent indoors. In Semey (I can't speak for other cities) public transport is nightmarish, the streets mainly unpaved, icy (in winter), dusty (in summer), dangerous (open manholes, potholes) and dirty. The accommodation is just about bearable though power outages, brown hot water and substandard furniture are all normal.
The NIS schools themselves are all struggling with adminstration issues. It's still all very Soviet and they have a hard time breaking out of it. The local teachers earn a lot more than in the state schools so are too afraid of losing their jobs to try to affect change. Lots is done in the name of 'innovation' or 'experimentation' which is actually just bad management. We had no leadership from anywhere, leaving us all to find our own way and stumble through the first year. It has led to a lot of competitiveness, back-biting and one-up-manship amongst the international staff.
If I had decided to write this a couple of months ago I would have warned off anyone foolish enough to join NIS. Now with the winter over and a little more clarity about what it is all about I would say that it is not all bad. It's certainly worth it for the money - I spend around $250 a month here, the rest is banked. Like anywhere, much depends on your colleagues. Get a good crew and it will be frustrating but bearable. Don't come for the career development or the cultural experience. If you come for the money, be prepared to have your patience and professionalism taxed.
The good things are the students and the local teachers - all lovely, helpful and thoughtful. The contract is adhered to strictly. You get exactly what it says on the can.
However, the problems start when you interpret the words of the contract: 56 days paid holiday a year means one thing to your average westerner, to your KZ school accountant that means 56 days paid according to their convoluted formula which makes little sense. It adds up to maybe a few hundred dollars short of what you expected but costs them a whole heap of trust and confidence. "Public holidays aren't paid but you won't lose any money" is typical advice from NIS. There is health insurance but sick days are paid at some tiny fraction of a normal day's pay. Everything is a mystery, but on the whole it works out well and it is possible to save most of what you earn. There are no delays in paying out for 4 single airfares a year, settlement allowance and regular pay.
The less good parts are the weather - count on November to March being spent indoors. In Semey (I can't speak for other cities) public transport is nightmarish, the streets mainly unpaved, icy (in winter), dusty (in summer), dangerous (open manholes, potholes) and dirty. The accommodation is just about bearable though power outages, brown hot water and substandard furniture are all normal.
The NIS schools themselves are all struggling with adminstration issues. It's still all very Soviet and they have a hard time breaking out of it. The local teachers earn a lot more than in the state schools so are too afraid of losing their jobs to try to affect change. Lots is done in the name of 'innovation' or 'experimentation' which is actually just bad management. We had no leadership from anywhere, leaving us all to find our own way and stumble through the first year. It has led to a lot of competitiveness, back-biting and one-up-manship amongst the international staff.
If I had decided to write this a couple of months ago I would have warned off anyone foolish enough to join NIS. Now with the winter over and a little more clarity about what it is all about I would say that it is not all bad. It's certainly worth it for the money - I spend around $250 a month here, the rest is banked. Like anywhere, much depends on your colleagues. Get a good crew and it will be frustrating but bearable. Don't come for the career development or the cultural experience. If you come for the money, be prepared to have your patience and professionalism taxed.
Comment
@DLMorgan
Not to rub salt in the wounds, but how can you argue you get exactly whats in your contract when the formulas for computing so many things from sick leave pay and paid holidays leaves you short?
Did your contract say you would have substandard housing including power outages, brown water, and poor furnishings? If it did then I suppose there isnt an issue, but ive seen a lot of contracts and never one that said "our housing is horrible". So assuming it didnt say that how can you say they honored the contract.
The only positives you identify are 1) they reimbursed your airfare promptly (they should have just bought the tickets in the first place). 2) You could save money, but how much of that saving potential is about YOU and your budgeting lifestyle choices that arent universal or applicable to someone else?
Not to rub salt in the wounds, but how can you argue you get exactly whats in your contract when the formulas for computing so many things from sick leave pay and paid holidays leaves you short?
Did your contract say you would have substandard housing including power outages, brown water, and poor furnishings? If it did then I suppose there isnt an issue, but ive seen a lot of contracts and never one that said "our housing is horrible". So assuming it didnt say that how can you say they honored the contract.
The only positives you identify are 1) they reimbursed your airfare promptly (they should have just bought the tickets in the first place). 2) You could save money, but how much of that saving potential is about YOU and your budgeting lifestyle choices that arent universal or applicable to someone else?
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higgsboson
- Posts: 150
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 1:13 am
DL Morgan: [quote]Everything is a mystery, but on the whole it works out well and it is possible to save most of what you earn. There are no delays in paying out for 4 single airfares a year, settlement allowance and regular pay.[/quote]
I passed up a contract in Semy to work in China. The offer was US$5,000/month. I'm curious, assuming I do live a very frugal life style, how much could I have saved over the course of a year?
Thanks!
I passed up a contract in Semy to work in China. The offer was US$5,000/month. I'm curious, assuming I do live a very frugal life style, how much could I have saved over the course of a year?
Thanks!
@Higgsboson
I am in a rural school so get $5000 a month. After tax that is $4500. I spend on average less than $500. I eat dinner at home, I don't buy much (there's nothing worth buying) have lunch at school which is very cheap.
As I tried to explain in my previous post - without boring details - they do everything they say they will; they pay and provide all they promise, but just in so. Always on time, always to the letter, not a cent more, not an inch more and if they can scrape a penny back or give you a cheap alternative, they will. But you will get your monthly pay, your flights, your holidays, your visa and your settlement allowance.
I paid off all my debts in the first few months of coming here - about $8,000, blew another (maybe) $3,000 on/during a Christmas vacation all around Europe, send money back to my daughter and will still end the year with around $15,000. Next year I expect to save $30,000 as I won't have any costs except my daughter.
If the figures don't add up (for the sake of our resident Troll) it's because:
a) I'm British and am guestimating $. KZ Tenge go into my account and GPB go out. I put about £2,500 into my UK account every month.
b) When the contract says '56 days holiday' it means just that. Sometimes the school will be closed and so it's a 'holiday' - but not a PAID holiday. Then your next PAID holiday pay is calculated according to your days worked, but you had an unpaid holiday so your average pay is now lower than a straight $5,000 a month. Confused yet? You soon will be.
c) 56 days seems a lot till you get close to the end of term in May, the school will be closed till September and you are desperate to get back to civilization and opt for a month of unpaid holiday on top of the remainder of your paid days.
Overall, you can really save. My daughter will get through University and I will leave after 2 years with enough money that I don't have to work for a year or so if I don't want to. It's not [i]hard[/i] work exactly, but it's crazy. You will need a thick skin and a sense of humour. During the dark, cold winter it is a matter of hanging on to whatever sanity you can find, but by spring, if your co-internationals are half decent, you can look back and laugh and know you've helped out some lovely Kazakh people and earned a good wage doing it.
You won't get away with giving the kids worksheets and reading a few books the whole time. In fact if you go with the attitude of taking the money and laughing the whole way you'll have a very rough time of it. The locals know how much you earn and the other internationals don't need freeloaders. It's not a situation where you can boldly disengage yourself from society- you will need people on your side.
I'd compare it a little to going out on the oil riggs. It's isolated, unpleasant and uncomfortable at times, highly dependent on your relationships with your comrades but the net returns are good. Everyone is there for the money, make no mistake. Believing you can go there, lie back and watch it accumulate in your bank account is self-deluding. I'm pretty tough and it's the hardest working experience I've had - except perhaps teaching in a British state school :roll: - not to be taken too lightly.
I am in a rural school so get $5000 a month. After tax that is $4500. I spend on average less than $500. I eat dinner at home, I don't buy much (there's nothing worth buying) have lunch at school which is very cheap.
As I tried to explain in my previous post - without boring details - they do everything they say they will; they pay and provide all they promise, but just in so. Always on time, always to the letter, not a cent more, not an inch more and if they can scrape a penny back or give you a cheap alternative, they will. But you will get your monthly pay, your flights, your holidays, your visa and your settlement allowance.
I paid off all my debts in the first few months of coming here - about $8,000, blew another (maybe) $3,000 on/during a Christmas vacation all around Europe, send money back to my daughter and will still end the year with around $15,000. Next year I expect to save $30,000 as I won't have any costs except my daughter.
If the figures don't add up (for the sake of our resident Troll) it's because:
a) I'm British and am guestimating $. KZ Tenge go into my account and GPB go out. I put about £2,500 into my UK account every month.
b) When the contract says '56 days holiday' it means just that. Sometimes the school will be closed and so it's a 'holiday' - but not a PAID holiday. Then your next PAID holiday pay is calculated according to your days worked, but you had an unpaid holiday so your average pay is now lower than a straight $5,000 a month. Confused yet? You soon will be.
c) 56 days seems a lot till you get close to the end of term in May, the school will be closed till September and you are desperate to get back to civilization and opt for a month of unpaid holiday on top of the remainder of your paid days.
Overall, you can really save. My daughter will get through University and I will leave after 2 years with enough money that I don't have to work for a year or so if I don't want to. It's not [i]hard[/i] work exactly, but it's crazy. You will need a thick skin and a sense of humour. During the dark, cold winter it is a matter of hanging on to whatever sanity you can find, but by spring, if your co-internationals are half decent, you can look back and laugh and know you've helped out some lovely Kazakh people and earned a good wage doing it.
You won't get away with giving the kids worksheets and reading a few books the whole time. In fact if you go with the attitude of taking the money and laughing the whole way you'll have a very rough time of it. The locals know how much you earn and the other internationals don't need freeloaders. It's not a situation where you can boldly disengage yourself from society- you will need people on your side.
I'd compare it a little to going out on the oil riggs. It's isolated, unpleasant and uncomfortable at times, highly dependent on your relationships with your comrades but the net returns are good. Everyone is there for the money, make no mistake. Believing you can go there, lie back and watch it accumulate in your bank account is self-deluding. I'm pretty tough and it's the hardest working experience I've had - except perhaps teaching in a British state school :roll: - not to be taken too lightly.
Discussion
@DLMorgan
I stand corrected (actually sitting, rather dumb founded).
One more inquiry: Khazi or British woman?
I stand corrected (actually sitting, rather dumb founded).
One more inquiry: Khazi or British woman?
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lifeisnotsobad
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Tue May 13, 2008 3:37 pm
SighGuy,
Try...www.datingagency.com/
I believe you have blundered into the International Schools Review Forum by mistake.
Try...www.datingagency.com/
I believe you have blundered into the International Schools Review Forum by mistake.
Last edited by lifeisnotsobad on Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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higgsboson
- Posts: 150
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 1:13 am
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higgsboson
- Posts: 150
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 1:13 am
NIS update
[quote]Any comments on the recent ISR review that claims NIS has broken all contracts in violation of both Russian and English versions and that no Summer salaries will be paid?
Any truth to these allegations?[/quote]
Rumours are rife at the moment. People are leaving for holidays or for good without any clear information. Decisions are made and unmade almost on a weekly basis.
Last week or so (mid-May) I was told that I would have only 'earned' 46 days holiday at the start of my holiday in June (10 months worked at 4.6 days a month) so I would have to come back before the end of my contract to claim the remaining 10 days holiday. Sounded a bit crazy to me but then the following week my colleagues were told that the remaining 10 days were basically a contract renewal bonus - that they would be added to the following winter holidays but would be forfeited by those who didn't return a second year. No mention of any such thing in the contract.
The calculation for the daily rate of pay for the 46 days is based on days worked - which means that if any days in the previous months were taken as unpaid leave or sick leave then the average is below a simple monthly salary divided by days in the month. This is Kazakh employment law so can't be avoided.
The whole issue of holidays is so complex, controversial and must ultimately be approved on a one-at-a-time in front of the Director basis that I have been told that I must wait my turn till at least next week to go through the holiday request process. This will involve the HR and another KZ colleague sitting down together to calculate the days I'm entitled to. Once they have informed me how many days I may take I must write a handwritten letter asking the Director to allow me to take these days and allow me to take the remaining days to the end of my contract unpaid. The fact that I do not want to take all of those days off as they are unpaid is irrelevent. If the Director approves I will be informed of the amount that my average daily rate x allowed holidays will amount to.
In the meantime we have all been told to be 'signed off' by 12 or 15 members of administration. Until I have found everyone on the list, many of whom I have never met, and they have signed to confirm I am not running off with library books or with my intials carved into our desks, I will not be paid my holiday pay. Final flights out of here will not be paid until boarding passes are Fed-exed back to our schools.
'Those of us who plan to stay have been given official offer letters but though we ask continually for new contracts we have been told 'Astana is dealing with it'. Various rumours suggest that paid flights or visas will not be part of next year's contract. Rumours also suggest that there is not a huge influx of teachers begging to be allowed to teach here next year. While Astana penny-pinches more current teachers find new posts and leave with whatever they are offered and a 'good riddance Kazakhstan'. No-one trusts NIS enough to plan to return without seeing last year's contract honoured first, obviously, but nevertheless this is what they seriously expect us to do.
Having said all this, most of the local teachers and all of the students are wonderful. It's the easiest job I've had in terms of teaching. It's a shame the administration are just looking to cut costs and corners and bully the international staff in the same way they do local staff.
I would - I will - seriously wait till the very last minute to see if it is worth starting the new school year here. They will undoubtedly be desperate for teachers and will be recruiting up till they realise the whole project needs to be shut down if they can't recruit.
I shall keep you informed as things develop and would appreciate any information from teachers at other schools as there is so little cross-school communication.
Any truth to these allegations?[/quote]
Rumours are rife at the moment. People are leaving for holidays or for good without any clear information. Decisions are made and unmade almost on a weekly basis.
Last week or so (mid-May) I was told that I would have only 'earned' 46 days holiday at the start of my holiday in June (10 months worked at 4.6 days a month) so I would have to come back before the end of my contract to claim the remaining 10 days holiday. Sounded a bit crazy to me but then the following week my colleagues were told that the remaining 10 days were basically a contract renewal bonus - that they would be added to the following winter holidays but would be forfeited by those who didn't return a second year. No mention of any such thing in the contract.
The calculation for the daily rate of pay for the 46 days is based on days worked - which means that if any days in the previous months were taken as unpaid leave or sick leave then the average is below a simple monthly salary divided by days in the month. This is Kazakh employment law so can't be avoided.
The whole issue of holidays is so complex, controversial and must ultimately be approved on a one-at-a-time in front of the Director basis that I have been told that I must wait my turn till at least next week to go through the holiday request process. This will involve the HR and another KZ colleague sitting down together to calculate the days I'm entitled to. Once they have informed me how many days I may take I must write a handwritten letter asking the Director to allow me to take these days and allow me to take the remaining days to the end of my contract unpaid. The fact that I do not want to take all of those days off as they are unpaid is irrelevent. If the Director approves I will be informed of the amount that my average daily rate x allowed holidays will amount to.
In the meantime we have all been told to be 'signed off' by 12 or 15 members of administration. Until I have found everyone on the list, many of whom I have never met, and they have signed to confirm I am not running off with library books or with my intials carved into our desks, I will not be paid my holiday pay. Final flights out of here will not be paid until boarding passes are Fed-exed back to our schools.
'Those of us who plan to stay have been given official offer letters but though we ask continually for new contracts we have been told 'Astana is dealing with it'. Various rumours suggest that paid flights or visas will not be part of next year's contract. Rumours also suggest that there is not a huge influx of teachers begging to be allowed to teach here next year. While Astana penny-pinches more current teachers find new posts and leave with whatever they are offered and a 'good riddance Kazakhstan'. No-one trusts NIS enough to plan to return without seeing last year's contract honoured first, obviously, but nevertheless this is what they seriously expect us to do.
Having said all this, most of the local teachers and all of the students are wonderful. It's the easiest job I've had in terms of teaching. It's a shame the administration are just looking to cut costs and corners and bully the international staff in the same way they do local staff.
I would - I will - seriously wait till the very last minute to see if it is worth starting the new school year here. They will undoubtedly be desperate for teachers and will be recruiting up till they realise the whole project needs to be shut down if they can't recruit.
I shall keep you informed as things develop and would appreciate any information from teachers at other schools as there is so little cross-school communication.
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bluesealkz
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:10 am
No word on a contract yet where I am. Most people expect to leave without a contract in hand. People have been given basic offer letters ("Hi! We'd like you to come back!") but no information on changes made to the contract, if any. It should be noted that last year, HR made a big about how they were "working on improving the contract" only to turn around and give us a document virtually identical to the year before. That might actually be better than a new contract, given that changes are generally not made for the worker's benefit. In theory, NIS can't ditch the visa stuff since they're required to do the lion's share of the work for people to even be able to get a visa in the first place. Eliminating flights would essentially kill the project--nobody's going to spend several thousand dollars of their own money to come to Kazakhstan. Working out transport to the regional areas basically requires a local to suss out and smooth things over.
When it comes down to actually honoring the current contract, Astana HR has taken a hands off approach this year and shunted everything down to the schools. Some get all 56 days of leave, no questions asked. Others get 46, thanks to some... interesting math. Labour law is a bit dodgy on the issue of vacation time; monthly leave calculations CAN be used but it's up to the discretion of the employer whether to use them or not. Given the style of management, this means things don't always end well when contractual issues come to a head. I know of one team leader being ousted by a school director for making a fuss over the contract and I've heard rumors of a second, more recent departure.
Will I come back next year? Who knows. Money's good, even if you don't get all of it, but it's a dull, dreary work environment. Privacy is an issue, inside and outside of school, for sure. We stand out in town and we're definitely being monitored. One of the reviews mentions emails being hacked by the school--I have trouble believing that completely, but a local colleague warned me that emails sent over the school network can be intercepted. Translated? That's an entirely different topic. Teachers' behavior outside of school has been reported back to administrators. Nobody behaves badly while on the town, but I don't like the idea of my "boss" knowing what I ordered at a restaurant and how many beers I had to wash the grease down.
Prospects aren't necessarily good for recruitment. Consider that last year, NIS had something like 34 or 35 international staff nationwide, and basically nothing came up when you searched for the school online. Now, with nearly 200 around the country, there's a lot more info and a lot of it isn't good. Management definitely reads this page--lots of hubbub over the negative reviews way back in the beginning of the year--but they don't understand how it could impact their efforts to bring in new staff.
When it comes down to actually honoring the current contract, Astana HR has taken a hands off approach this year and shunted everything down to the schools. Some get all 56 days of leave, no questions asked. Others get 46, thanks to some... interesting math. Labour law is a bit dodgy on the issue of vacation time; monthly leave calculations CAN be used but it's up to the discretion of the employer whether to use them or not. Given the style of management, this means things don't always end well when contractual issues come to a head. I know of one team leader being ousted by a school director for making a fuss over the contract and I've heard rumors of a second, more recent departure.
Will I come back next year? Who knows. Money's good, even if you don't get all of it, but it's a dull, dreary work environment. Privacy is an issue, inside and outside of school, for sure. We stand out in town and we're definitely being monitored. One of the reviews mentions emails being hacked by the school--I have trouble believing that completely, but a local colleague warned me that emails sent over the school network can be intercepted. Translated? That's an entirely different topic. Teachers' behavior outside of school has been reported back to administrators. Nobody behaves badly while on the town, but I don't like the idea of my "boss" knowing what I ordered at a restaurant and how many beers I had to wash the grease down.
Prospects aren't necessarily good for recruitment. Consider that last year, NIS had something like 34 or 35 international staff nationwide, and basically nothing came up when you searched for the school online. Now, with nearly 200 around the country, there's a lot more info and a lot of it isn't good. Management definitely reads this page--lots of hubbub over the negative reviews way back in the beginning of the year--but they don't understand how it could impact their efforts to bring in new staff.