Your intrepid sleuth came across the following diatribe on his wanderings. The article is in serious danger of becoming extinct as it has been heavily censored on some sites and has even been completely pulled on at least two others. Here it can be preserved for posterity. The Inspector isn't too sure who wrote it but will be very happy to acknowledge the author if he cares to drop him a line."The biggest advances that man can make are achieved through knowledge and education. Education in Indonesia is usually only thought of in terms of the primary, secondary, high schools and universities of Indonesia. But what about the English language schools which are operating throughout Indonesia as privatized businesses? Who is accounting for THEIR academic standards? THEIR employments standards? THEIR employment practices?
English First is the biggest and most well known chain of franchised English language schools in Indonesia. They are well known, by name, by Indonesian students and are trusted by Indonesians to be an establishment that sells the highest academic excellence in the ESL industry. Having been an employee of this chain, I would challenge any claims of academic excellence and I am miffed at the recruiting techniques, contract negotiating, academic standards and treatment of their academic staff. I would also challenge English First to their competence in providing solid methodologies or techniques in teaching the spoken English language.
I am also miffed as to how this school can continually circumvent Indonesian employment laws, circumvent the immigration laws and visa regulations as well as circumvent Indonesian laws in regards to contractual employment agreements. As a former upper management staff member of an English First school, I was under the impression that Indonesian law required expat teachers to have qualifications to teach spoken English in Indonesia. I was also under the impression that to acquire a KITAS, foreign English teachers were required to be NATIVE speakers of English and MUST be from Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand or England. So why does English First have many teachers throughout their franchised system who are from countries other than the countries not on the list? And how do these teachers from OTHER countries have KITAS visas when they are full time ESL teachers at a language school?
Currently, the largest numbers of employed teachers from OTHER countries are from the Philippines and their contract salaries are considerably less than that of those from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or England. I was also under the impression that teachers were required to have verifiable qualifications to TEACH spoken English. How and why does English First continually hire what are supposed to be Professional teachers when the majority of their teachers have NO experience teaching spoken English, no qualifications to TEACH spoken English or are not even native speakers from the 5 stipulated countries clearly written in Indonesian Employment codes?
Why are English First teachers required to meet an “Agent” in Singapore, wait 3 months for a legal work permit and during the “waiting period” must be hidden from view when immigration agents show up at the school?
I am also curious to know why English First can consistently sign teachers to 1 year contracts yet not provide LEGAL KITAS work permits for 4 or 5 or 6 months, sometimes longer, for teachers even though the contract has been already signed. Is there a loophole in the law? Is it not the legal responsibility of English First to provide legal work papers at the time of contract signing?
Why is it that English First is allowed to change the terms of the contract of the teacher AFTER the contract is signed by both parties? And how is this done with no legal representation for the party whose contract is being changed?
Why are Native teachers required to sign a contract that stipulates that if they leave prior to the final date of contract they must pay $1000-1500usd, prorated for time of service, for the KITAS work permits when they are provided no receipts or proof of cost for the work permits? Where are these work permits coming from?
Why are there Native teachers honoring their contracts and teaching yet they receive no legal working paperwork for up to 6 months after arrival? Education is the future of Indonesia, the future of all who live on our earth. The President of Indonesia, a few months ago, stated that the acquirement of the English language is a priority of this country. Why is the future of Indonesian students treated with such passive carelessness?
Why can a school like English First consistently market themselves as academic professionals when it is obvious to professional English teachers that they have no competence in the industry which they represent? Indonesian students of English should be demanding educational competence from these privatized schools and demanding qualifications from the teachers who are teaching them or your children before they enroll. More over, companies that choose to be in the education industry should be required to meet basic academic and employment standards that are equivalent to the countries they represent. Meaning, privatized English schools should not be allowed to operate within’ Indonesian borders unless they can meet the minimum academic and employment standards of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or England.
English First has spent 7 years in making themselves an “Image” name in Indonesia. A statement they proudly and repeatedly clarify in their operating manuals. And according to their operating manuals they are ONLY an image name in Indonesia. They are not an “Image” native teachers want to list on their CV’s because reputable other ESL employers find EF to be less then sub-standard in academic delivery. They are not an “Image” name on ESL teacher forums on the internet where they are blasted for management and academic incompetence on a daily basis. They are not an “Image” name amongst international ESL Academic’s such as TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS and the de facto ESL accrediting agency, The British Council."
Phew!
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The inequality of arms could not have been greater 
"I worked with IH affiliates (yes, they are affiliates not franchises) for 9 years. In total I was employed at 7 IH affiliates.
I came across a couple of good centres, a couple of mediocre ones and some utterly appalling ones.
The general feeling I got was that IH was in decline, moral and managerial decline. When I first started working at an IH affiliate there were structured points within the affiliation agreement which gave the teacher a fair deal. One such example was the minimum annual leave entitlement. However, with the now not so new director taking over (that's the affable Mr Carrier, of course), these points were either watered down or dropped all together. Thus you now have IH affiliates such as Kuala Lumpur offering only 18 days annual leave a year and making the teacher work 5 and a half days a week for a pathetic local salary which is laughed at even by local Malaysians.
The reasons for this were soon clear to anyone prepared to do the tiniest amount of research. Firstly, IH wants affiliation money. It is a business after all and a greedy one at that, so it has been encouraging expansion through taking on board centres with woefully poor and exploitative conditions. These centres were not keen on improving their conditions, especially when they had just started paying a rather sizeable affiliation fee (a huge fee for some economies), so the IH directorate gave the nod to allow them to establish whatever conditions and teaching contracts they liked.
Another important and often overlooked situation concerns the inner managerial decision makers. Who are they exactly? Well, we have the director of IH San Sebastian who just happens to preside over the most notorious IH affiliate in Spain with 6 day working weeks and low salaries for teachers living in one of the most expensive cities in Spain. Lovely chap though Mr Lcunza is, especially when he has just had dinner with his bank manager. Ah yes, there is also the director of IH Mexico City, the place where teachers are crying poverty. Yes, these and others like them are the people making all the affiliation decisions in the IH world.
So, from personal experience of certain IH centres I worked at what can I say? Of the good centres we can count in some of the affiliates in Southern Poland. These affiliates would be good places for the first time teacher to spend a year with. Their in-house training is very good indeed, although the salaries they offer, although adequate to live on, are below the market rate. So any teacher shouldn't bother with them for more than a year. Another very good IH affiliate I taught with for 2 years has now disaffiliated. It did this owing to the IH name losing credibility, the watering down of the agreement, and, more precisely because IH allowed the establishment of other new IH affiliates in the same city. These new affiliates were serious competition and offered both the teacher and the student a far inferior quality in terms of remuneration for the teacher and facilities for the student. This particular IH affiliate had worked very hard for years to build up the IH name to be well-recognised and highly thought of in its city. But with the arrival of the new affiliates the quality and reputation dropped rapidly and student numbers dropped owing to new competition and a reduced confidence, the only way forward was to disaffiliate and start again under its own name.
I won't mention the mediocre affiliates I worked at, but will merely mention the name of one which appears all over the net as being one of the worst schools in existence ( I mean anywhere, not just IH. It epitomises everything that is wrong with IH: International House Kuala Lumpur - just do a google search, and while you're at it, look out for a picture of the debonair Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing (Warning: do not do this while eating)
I could go on and give pages of details about my experience as a teacher and Director of Studies with the IH affiliates I have worked at, but I'd prefer to save them for the moment, in the belief that when I turn them into a bestseller, I'll recoup some of the cash that IH exploited me and countless others for.
So, Mr anonymous, with regards to your comments about IH, you are clearly posting some of the most nonsensical garbage I have ever seen, but I do thank you for providing an abundance of mirth and joviality to my day."