Corrupt Principals In China Plan To Cheat Foreign Teachers With Agents!

Edited by Not Amused at 2013-01-26 19:24 Hold on to your hat and have a seat friends. Recently a vice principal for a private but large Kindergarten chain in China confided to her expat husband that Principals in China are earning over $100,000 a year by colluding with recruiters and agents - even if they are not registered nor licensed.  Together they conspire to cheat expat foreign teachers as follows... If a foreign teacher contacts a school inquiring about a teaching position, the school will not even repy to the inquiry. Instead the principal will have his/her assistant send the email over to one of their friendly agents who will follow up with the expat. Why? Because the school has funds in their budget to pay the teacher 15,000 to 18,000 yuan per month. But if the school hires the teacher directly the Principal cannot make any money and the teacher will collect a full salary. But by using an agent, the principal gets to collect a 3,000 rmb kickback every month per teacher and the agent will also collect the same "commission".  That is 36,000 rmb per year per teach the principal is putting in their pocket for doing nothing more than forwarding an email to their favorite agent. Now an average kindergarten school in this chain has 5-10 foreign teachers. Do the math. On average the teacher will collect 10,000 rmb every month while the principal amd agent split 6,000 every month. But even that is not enough money for them so they increase their shady profits even more with the following ploy... All newly-hired teachers are hired on a "90 or 180 day probationary period" at a further reduced salary - say 8,000 rmb per month. (The principal gets to pocket this extra money). During the last week of the probationary period, the foreign teacher is given some really "bad news".  Despite all the free overtime hours they worked during the probationary period, and despite the fact they did a great job and the kids love them, there is a new budget that requires cutbacks. Of course the newest teachers are the first to be let go - "sorry". Less than a week after the expat teachers are terminated, the agent will be instructed to hire a new batch of foreign teachers and the scam cycle is repeated so profits can be doubled. To add insult to injury, many of these principals want to be paid 3,000rmb to give the terminated teacher their official release letter! Now you know why 79% of all foreign teachers in China wish they never took teaching jobs and why they will go home with not many good things to say about China. If you think the above is shameful, just visitwww.ChinaScamBusters.com or read this articlehttp://open.salon.com/blog/china_business_central/2012/12/14/china_foreign_teachers_exploited_and_abused_by_scams Personally, I think this puts an end to the myth that "teachers in China are highly esteemed and respected by Chinese society".  Actions speak louder than words and these actions tell me that Chinese apparently think foreigners are just someone easy to exploit and cheat. These principals are criminals who are making more than double their salary under the table. They should all be publicly exposed on Weibo with their names and photgraphs in my opinion. Now we know how they can afford to drive BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes. My Chinese girlfriend and I are still arguing about this, but we are both glad that I am not a teacher in China!