It is frustrating to see a school with potential so thoroughly stuck in an outmoded obsolete communist management system. Who knew that in a so called IB school meaningful collaboration would be all but nonexistent? Or that there would be a strict adherence to hierarchy, favoritism and cooperation forced by directive and threats and teacher salary deductions rather than cooperation based on collaborative agreement? Suggestions often are seen as threats, and these rogue teachers are punished in front of the entire school during the evening meetings.

Teachers are forced to attend these evening meetings on a weekday from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., this is not in our contract. We are also forced to come to school on several weekends, and make up any holidays on the weekend. We get 1 day off for Christmas and 1 day for New Years day. We make these 2 days up on the following Saturday and Sunday.

An outside IB facilitator, upon learning cgs administrators' definition of "collaboration," took great pains to explain the difference between forced "cooperation" and true "collaboration" during an in-service IB visitation. IB has downgraded cgs, for not following the IB curriculum, and requested the IB logo be removed from the cgs adverts, signs and letterheads, while pending a full IB Investigation. Administrators should have been listening, instead of deducting monies from foreign staff and threatening staff, with termination, while trying to determine who the IB whistle blower is, or who contacted the IB people.

The favoritism and threats of reprimand and punishment have a chilling effect on the kind of open discussion that is necessary for institutional growth. The salary for 2017-2018 has been reduced further, while the workload has increased.

This school had once hired, well qualified teachers and paid them well. Now they employ backpackers, fly by nighters and all sorts of interesting people, who hardly qualify as teachers back home.

The cgs IB committee is toothless. Over a four-year period, according to the IB director's own writen report, the only area they were able to have any meaningful impact on was the school cafeteria menu. One of the IB faculty committee leaders observed that principal LI "doesn't take the education process seriously." As could be expected given the above, the grievance process is ineffective, and... Teacher evaluations are mostly used to intimidate fine and punish staff members, foreign and local.

The underlying problem at cgs is an apathetic Board of Chinese administrators that, in the words of the foreign principal, "does not involve itself in these matters."

The principal, other administrators and the board should work toward developing the kind of institution they pretend to have; in that way, they will be able to answer questions truthfully when asked during the next IB visitation process if there even is one.

Teachers are forced at 8 am on Monday mornings, to do a pathetic monkey dance and sing a song, after flag raising ceremony. The students love this, but one Canadian female teacher actually was seen crying, and shortly fled back to her homeland.

As a country, China needs to work hard to get a handle on population growth and associated problems, particularly hazardous air quality and inadequate, unsafe infrastructure for pedestrians.

Many teachers are also forced to buy scooters, which are not safe. We all had at least one accident, and last year a teacher was killed.