Thursday, February 13, 2014

Another story, this is what  Dave Lloyd with email address hiddenagendas00@gmail.com wanted to post but there was not enough space in the reply section, so I am more than happy to post the below comment on behalf of this person, please feel free to contact this person for any further details. So, the comment is as follows:

"In the past two months, two people have been fired, and one resigned. I worked there last year in the ESL department, and it was a complete disaster. Teachers were asked to write and prepare exams for both semesters, which they did, diligently.

It is worth noting here, that the teachers who did not work on the exams were not permitted to see them, because the managerial staff could not trust their teachers, and they believed they might give the answers away to students. This is an underlying problem in the university as a whole - mistrust between teachers and managerial staff. 

The absurdity of this is evident at the end of the semester when 99% of the E.P.P students are passed – even when some of these students fail the entire course by 15%.

Last summer’s obscenity accentuates the absurdity even more so. As part of the end of semester project, five students from each class were selected to participate in an open quiz against each other. This was a great idea until we found out that the prize for the winning group included a 5% bonus of marks for the entire class. This meant that along with the five students selected, the other 20 got a 5% free grade. Some of the students did not even show up that day to cheer their classmates on, and woke up the next morning with free marks. Despite the teachers pointing this out to the line manager, and the C.L.O nothing was done. It is a mockery of education, an insult to students who worked hard for a year to get good grades, and it demoralizes teachers, who were left wondering what was the point in teaching. 

Thus, many students are passed when they are not ready to go into undergraduate studies. Their level of English is on par with absolute beginners, and they are expected to study Business and Engineering courses in English for the next few years. I asked my line manager about this, and her response was, she knew plenty of students who managed quite well in their undergrad studies, even if their English was very poor. This is not only a blatant lie, but it undermines the purpose of the whole E.P.P program.

Back to my original point. So, the exams were written up and ready to go, the day before the exam date. That evening, the great Florentina and Rosa decided to - as acting E.P.P department chief, squash any possibility that the teachers working on the exam might have leaked answers - shuffle the exam questions. No one but her, and the C.L.O #Mohaned #Hassanin, knew of this.

The result of this  was  incredible, as she managed to botch the entire thing. The next morning there were over five mistakes on the exam papers, as the shuffle had answers on the multiple choice questions that did not make sense. It was humiliating for the teachers to announce throughout the morning of the exam these mistakes to students. Some questions had no right answer, and the student received top marks for it.

Just try to imagine being in that situation, especially if you spent weeks beating your head off a wall writing the exams out. Of course, nothing happened to Florentina Rosa. It seems complete incompetence gets you a stay of execution at #AUM. I have had friends sacked because they questioned the professionalism of the place, and here we have someone who embarrassed the school as a whole, and got away with it. This is the level of competence you are dealing with at #AUM. These are decisions made by the people in managerial positions. And this is a single example of how poorly organized the institute is. Our beloved C.L.O announced afterwards that the exams were a great success. What does this say about him?

It comes down to trust. I watched the atmosphere of the place go from active and energetic in my first few months to sullen and vacant as the months wore on. Once people realized that teachers had little or no autonomy, that students need only register to pass, that management pretended to listen, that the work load outstripped the award of being a teacher by a long stretch, then people got disheartened and it became very evident on the faces of all.

Money…that’s what is attractive, but as an ESL teacher the money is not that great. You will pay a lot, usually close or over $1000 rent for an adequate apartment.  Food is not cheap, clothes are not cheap…cigarettes are, but by the end of the second semester I smoked so much that they became a price issue.

That is a fragment of my experience there. I will write more. If you have any questions about this, please ask. I would not advise anyone to work for that company (university).  It amazes that a place with so much wealth can be so shambolic".

3 comments:

  1. To verify, this is my post. I had written too much and there is a character restriction of 4000, thus I had to contact the site owner and have he/she post it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you need Personal Loan?
    Business Cash Loan?
    Unsecured Loan
    Fast and Simple Loan?
    Quick Application Process?
    Approvals within 24-72 Hours?
    No Hidden Fees Loan?
    Funding in less than 1 Week?
    Get unsecured working capital?
    Email:(greenlightcapitalcorporation@gmail.com)


    Application Form:
    =================
    Full Name:................
    Loan Amount Needed:.
    Purpose of loan:.......
    Loan Duration:..
    Gender:.............
    Marital status:....
    Location:..........
    Home Address:..
    City:............
    Country:......
    Phone:..........
    Mobile / Cell:....
    Occupation:......
    Monthly Income:....

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm writing to warn potential employees against this fraudulent institution. This is probably the most horrendous workplace you could ever work at. The management is extremely abrasive and mean; they would do everything possible to inflict unnecessary pressure on employees, run them off their feet, and make sure they feel ostracized, overworked and humiliated for no reason at all. The atmosphere is extremely toxic and full of politics and constant plotting against competent employees. The whole place is run by a Lebanese-Turkish staff members who are unqualified, vicious, and racists. They immediately recognize good staff members and make sure they ostracize them until they're forced to resign or otherwise closely scrutinize them until they stack up good evidence to get them fired. Incident reports and HR meetings will be overshadowing your experience until you develop paranoia or OCD. The management signals out certain nationalities and treats them like garbage. The supervisors are mental and would watch your every move, they can literally go after you to the cafeteria in order to call you out on being late in your break. EPP Reading and Writing supervisor Reine Atme is someone who is neurotic, insolent, mean, officious and incompetent. She would pretend to be supportive and helpful in order to fish out details about the classroom, write an incident report against the instructor about them and send it to the HOD. Her main goal is to eliminate any potential competition and score points with the corrupt administration. One if the HOD is Sarp Erkir who is an officious racist puppet with a fake PhD who is ignorant of the simplest ESL details and commits numerous mistakes during meetings and tries to dump his mistakes on the staff and even attacks them for what he's responsible for. In addition, he has a reputation for being anti-hijabis and has urged the firing of many instructors.
    Do yourself a favor and decline their offer before you lose your sanity.

    ReplyDelete