I have delayed adding my perspective to this unfortunate mess of exchanges between my former colleagues. I was lucky to not have many of the experiences that the originators of this post had but I'm aware of the conditions which led to its writing.

Let me start with the positive. The teachers and the students are a great group of people and I wouldn't have stayed as long as I did without them. I miss them all the time and, at one point, thought of going back in spite of the story I'm about to share. I'll try to be as objective as possible.

I joined EIU at a time when the teaching staff included a high number of career-minded teachers and an equally-devoted DOS. I felt fortunate to be in an environment where academics and academic integrity were taken seriously and everyone was genuinely committed to the betterment of the program, the students and the profession. As is typical in Asia, though, authentic statistics are never as favorable as fabricated ones. The upper management at EIU made every effort to stifle accurate assessment and encouraged our department to pass failing students into higher levels despite the school's requirement that they earn an IELTS band 6 before graduation. Anyone who has worked in EFL long enough knows that this is a recipe for disaster. Nevertheless, the DOS and mentor teachers persisted in running the program as honorably as they could. In trying to appease the upper management, teachers were given discretion to pass only those students they felt were better than their exam results. It was obvious that students were not used to failing any course and they most certainly complained about it to the highest levels. As a result, the DOS was let go within a few short months and ten or so of the professional teachers who worked with her jumped ship or did not renew their contracts. At that time, there were no issues with pay being withheld or serious breaches of contract. Most of the administrative issues related to housing, visas and other issues which weren't life-threatening. With the DOS's departure, the co-director (IELTS head) assumed responsibility of both general English and IELTS and things began to go downhill quickly. Staff meetings and any hint of CPD disappeared completely. The summer of 2013 was a transition time. Most of the remaining teachers were hopeful things would improve once a new wave of well-qualified teachers arrived for the start of a new school year. For the next two months until my departure (notice given, no issues with paychecks), nothing changed from a leadership standpoint. And that's what it boils down to.

I absolutely believe that the teachers I worked with care about doing their jobs well. Some of them are still there now. They are good people who aren't bent on making the system worse. Sure they have fun outside of work and I did, too. Vietnam is a fantastic country and I have great memories of my time there. These teachers are good people with a poor leader. That is my opinion as of the time I left EIU. I cannot vouch first-hand for the stories of people coming to work high or not wearing shoes in the classroom. The alcohol stories are completely accurate and I'd say most of us came to work still feeling the night before at least once in our time there. It isn't ideal but the reality of being young and living in a country where beer costs $0.50 a bottle. No matter how you judge that, if teachers are allowed to be stoned/drunk/no-shoe wearing educators then it is a result of poor policies and worse management. If they are allowed to not give a shit about their teaching and are left to their own moral compass as to whether to give a damn about their jobs, that's a management failure at every level. Again, I think most of them do give a shit about their teaching but they're on a train that lost its engineer long ago. The current DOS is exactly what the EIU chiefs want: shut up and don't ask questions. Have some pride, mate. You've got a group of people who follow you without question. Where are you taking them?

My fellow teachers who have responded to this post (and I believe the DOS himself has weighed in here) insist that the situation has improved. I hope very much that is the case. Teachers, this school had so much potential to become an institution more honorable than most. But it takes good leadership to get there. Why do we post here now, long after our departure? For me, it's not because I have an axe to grind. As said above, I was treated well while I was there. I post here because I cared a lot about EIU and would still be there if there was any shred of evidence that upper management was interested in education. Alas, to me, EIU became an ordinary school with no differentiating qualities- save for a group of teachers with great potential and some doctored test results.