Beijing BISS International School (BISS), which last year experienced a financial crisis and a teachers’ strike, appears to be well on the road to recovery, thanks to a deal with education group ETU.
The school ran into difficulty, which last year resulted in teachers going unpaid and the school lacking essential supplies, until the Beijing Municipal Education Commission (BEC) stepped in. Since then the school has returned to stability, working with ETU over the last two months, according to a report on china.org.cn. The report quotes Elvis Tan, director of BISS, as saying: “We will continuously work together to provide the kids, regardless of their cultures and nationalities, a better education and a better future.”
ETU was founded by consultant and blogger Li Yinuo, when a move to Beijing coincided with her son reaching school age. The ETU School has grown rapidly to over 100 students and a second campus in Guangzhou, but as an organization ETU has broader goals, centered on combining innovative teaching methods from around the world with the Chinese curriculum.
Li Yinuo
Of the partnership with BISS, Li said: “BISS is a respectable international school with a long history and proven track record when it comes to the IB [International Baccalaureate] program. We believe that this comprehensive collaboration between ETU and BISS will offer two different, but complementary, education paths for students from different backgrounds and with diverse needs.”
Randal Eplin, former Head of School at BISS, told beijingkids:
“It has been and always was my goal for BISS to continue to provide a high quality and outstanding education for its students, and this merger hopefully means that BISS can continue its twenty-five year tradition of offering an outstanding education for its students for years and years to come.”
Photos: china.org.cn, etuschool.org
1 Comment
Speaking as someone that worked at BISS and was told in January BISS teachers were to receive unpaid salaries from the current BISS HR, I can say I have little confidence in BISS going forward. HR from BISS posted to several WeChat groups stating they planned to pay salaries owed to former teachers. After I contacted them, I received a Separation Agreement for the value of a flight allowance, but I have not received more than two months in salary from BISS. A flight allowance is worth significantly less than a month’s salary, much less two months.
Part of the separation agreement also states that BISS can no longer be talked about by the teacher, so any teacher that agrees to the terms of the separation agreement, even if it is for significantly less than the value of the money owed to them can no longer legally talk about what happened, including how little money they received. I haven’t signed the separation agreement and will not be signing anything that gives me only a flight allowance when I am owed much more.
I believe they are doing this in an attempt to improve their reputation without actually fully paying teachers what they are owed. If they can lie again and fool unsuspecting teachers into signing a contract with them soon, they will be able to open more classes and take more money from unsuspecting parents. I spoke to a former BISS child’s parents recently and they told me their child did not have a foreign teacher for part of the semester. This would make sense as no teacher would want to work at a place that does not pay employees.
After stating that I am owed more than a flight allowance, I have not received any response from BISS HR. This was before the Chinese New Year and BISS has been back in session for more than two weeks since the Chinese New Year. I have sent three reminder emails to their HR in that time, none of which have received replies. I hope parents will keep this comment in mind when they consider whether or not to enroll their child/children at BISS and teachers will also keep this comment in mind when they consider whether or not to sign a contract with BISS.