This is a piece of advice for diligent, volunteer teachers, and a warning to unscrupulous, corrupt owners of schools in underdeveloped countries, that corruption can not be silenced.
Last year (2012) I was invited to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) actually, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), but the school was unaware of the difference, at the privately-owned, International Medical College and Hospital (IMC) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, managed by International Medicare Limited (IML).
The writing was on the wall (So to speak) even before leaving Canada, as the incompetent General Secretary, Mr. Nurul Amin, decided that he could argue with the Bangladesh High Commission in Ottawa, Canada, regarding the requirement for IMC to provide a work permit to satisfy my application for a visa.
After months of embarrassed wrangling, which included the inefficient henchman, Mr. Amin (Unaware that the Earth was round), waking the High Commission’s 1st Councillor in the middle of the night, causing the visa to be issued ... under duress. In other words, IMC executives were able to ask (Or bribe) for a favor from the Prime Minister’s office, as a matter of cronyism.
Arriving in Dhaka, I was introduced to a makeshift classroom in the reception area of the small IML office. Once again, my heart stopped a beat. As this was another example of misrepresentation.
Eventually, unsuspecting students were enrolled and classes began. Teaching was shared between myself and another visiting professor and, together, we also spent some time teaching at the dilapidated college hospital located in a very poor rural area more than one hour’s drive north of the city ... this, requiring a 5:30 a.m. start. Incidentally, the photos on the company's Website have been touched-up in order to avoid showing the incomplete, decades-old, building construction or the excrement-filled 'pond'.
It was not very long before we met the self-styled Managing Director, Mr. M.A. Rab (Major General, Retired), who, without an ounce of experience, decided that he would redesign the curriculum (And much more). Although we fought against this, it was useless. The whole company executive of retired army officers were as corrupt and an extreme example of cronyism that was ever known. It seems a cultural phenomena in Bangladesh.
Eventually, our diligent students lost patience and the unintelligent Mr. Rab cancelled the classes, leaving my colleague and I penniless, with expired visas, in a country well known for its very dangerous political hartals (strikes) which should be described here in a later post.
We felt very bad for the students who had paid large tuition fees which were not refunded. Additionally, we could not understand the logic of stopping the much-needed education of poor students by foreign volunteer teachers. After all, we had paid for our own return air fares, accommodation, and food, etc., out of a monthly stipend of $200.
Therefore, please remember the name; the 'University of Hard Knocks' and, by the way, there are many honest colleges in Bangladesh (See British Council).
