From ISR 9-6-24
https://www.internationalschoolsreview. ... hool.htm#2
This school has NO BOARD, the "Director" is the HOS of course, and here he has no power so I guess the HOS is fair and equitable. The Board is really one guy, somebody called the CEO but never has been in the school. Weirdly he makes many decisions about the academic and hiring plans. No background in education. There is a mega-rich Cambodian billionaire who owns the school. They call him the Chairman.
Shipping and air travel are maybe paid for, maybe not, there are no clear guidelines. There are no extracurricular activities, kids work miserably all day and then go home. Of course, with the many unqualified teachers, including some with no BA at all, "work" means they just do stuff. Assessment of actual learning, and acting on that, is not really important here. With nearly 1000 kids, there is no director of curriculum, no director of teaching and learning, etc. etc. Nothing. They claim it is a Cambridge School but kids rarely take the exams and those that do rarely pass, and those that do pass success IN SPITE of the chaos.
Director's involvement in academics? For SISC, Mr. Larry seems to have tried to get the school principals on a good track, but they are all quitting this year. This is normal here. Mr. Larry is quitting too. There really is no point talking about the HOS, director, principals, etc. because the school has never run well because of the owners (who run construction businesses).
PAY: very low for a qualified international teacher, great for a hitchhiker/teacher
HOUSING: you could find a decent place to live for a few hundred bucks.
NIGHTLIFE: drinking, not much else
PD: unclear
Curriculum: seems to change every few years. when I started it was changing from IB, then something called bilingual, then Cambridge. who knows. Overall curriculum has tended to be made up stuff. Don't believe what you see on the website LOL.
This is not an internationally accredited school (CIE, WASC, etc. )-- NOPE. That should tell you something.
The physical campus is mediocre, built in 2017 with shoddy materials (same CEO who built it) it is now shows serious signs of collapse. Leaks, sewage smells, cracking floors, you name it. There is a gym, no aircon. They are in Cambodia, right? Temps in the upper 30 celsius. No theater or anything like that. So that stuff has to happen in the gym.
Plus: they paycheck is regular. You don't need to be qualified at anything to be a teacher.
Note: there are many schools like this one in Phnom Penh, many worse.
Run, don’t walk to the nearest exit.
The ENTIRE educational leadership team just resigned: head of school, principals, directors of learning support. Probably the beginning of the implosion. They’ll be replaced by anyone or anything willing to take the job. Maybe not replaced. This has happened before.
Why? Owners and such are horrible. There have been 10 school heads in 7 years. CEO Raymond Yager and his team of clueless non educators run things from behind the scenes, far away but with spies on site, and put terrible unqualified dolts in positions of power EXCEPT this year. We had a glimmer of hope in August but sadly The current educational leadership team (ALL resigning) have been great but never stood a chance with CEO Raymond Yager. I’ve never seen him but he controls everything. No idea what he really does except hire people to run the school and then piss them off. They seemed like a great team of education experts. Too much for this place.
Teachers get low pay, but always paid on time. Most of my “colleagues” have no qualifications. Not a place for a serious education professional. I can’t understand why parents accept it. Naive maybe. The curriculum has changed constantly over the years because there’s never been qualified leadership willing to stay long enough to
Raymond Yager has zero understanding of schools and education. It’s baffling.
If you have no concept of 21st century education, no options, no prospects, then you might be satisfied here. Even many of those goodfornothings gave up and split.
I’m not afraid of retaliation from my bosses for this because they’re all leaving for the same reasons.
Why there has never been ANY reviews of this place is a mystery. Maybe nobody cared enough.
I am 100% certain that there will be a huge exodus so beware.