Asian Integrated School Woes - it just keeps going on and on and on and on and on....

And the woes continue! Ok, I guess it's about time to throw in the towel and admit that I made a big (no not big but HUGE!) mistake to enroll my girls in Asian Integrated Shool. After all the assessment and evaluation I made last summer and as embarrassed as I am now, I would have to admit that it was really the biggest parenting mistake I've ever made for the girls, and now we all have to live up to that mistake.
Just this morning, I have been pulled aside by our Small Ate's teacher to very gently (as gentle as she possibly could, mind you!) remind me that the tuition fees are due today for the month of October and failure to make the payments, my child will be pulled out from her class! And this just after they had pulled her out last week! Just imagine how much patience I had to muster when I learned about it after I got home. I had this very great urge to go back to the school and raise h*^%!!! Apparently, the "Finance Officer" was not able to update his records to reflect our tuition fee payments! Can you imagine that? I have 3 children, which parent in their right mind will pay for only 2 of her kids and leave out one?! It is just plain unacceptable that because of their failure to efficiently discharge their duties, my daughter was left to suffer their inefficiencies?! I can only imagine the trauma she felt during the day and I was close to tears with the first words she told me when I reached home "Mei-mei, I don't want to go to school anymore because they kept me in the library just like a prisoner!" MY GOD!!!!!!!
Ok, given for example that we were not able to pay as I heard some of the cases were, is it right to involve the child for the shortcomings of their parents?! It is not the child's problem! And I heard some of these kids were in the elementary level too, who are old enough to understand the situation and old enough to be embarrassed from the predicament! This is just totally unacceptable! Of course again I would have to make a disclaimer here, I will again say, I only have myself to blame! Entrusting my children to these unprofessional, rude and heartless school! Yes, that's the best way to put it, heartless indeed! So can you blame me to be ranting about it when it was not my child nor even my own fault as a parent that our payments have not been reflected ---- and my child was left to suffer?!
See from the beginning of the school year, I together with most of the other parents believe that we have been very considerate about the shortcomings of the school, I mean they were not perfect, they were not even able to deliver what they promised. First they charge us with Montessori fee upon enrollment, but are the pre-school levels anything that even remotely resemble a montessori classroom????? NO! They were anything but! I have also written some of my initial concerns during the school opening here, and in that post I was hopeful that things will improve. Guess now you can agree with my disappointment when instead of addressing these concerns, they had been more focused in harassing the students whose parents were not able to come up with the tuition fees as per their set deadlines. Maybe, just maybe, I would understand when from the beginning the parents have been informed of their policies specially the "PULLING OUT" part, at least we would know what to expect and had we known about this monthly "RISK" that our children would be embarrassed in their class, then we would have reconsidered enrolling our kids to this school! Such as SHAME!
We were expected to pay the current month's tuition fees up to the 10th day of the same month, after then your children will be pulled out. So like for October, you are expected to pay by October 10, failure to do so, your child will be pulled out from class. How can it be considered late when the month had not even passed???? And as I've said, this would have been understandable if at the onset, they have asked the parents to sign an agreement with the school stating that we are expected to pay the tuition fees in advance and no consideration whatsoever is given to anyone who will not pay! 11th day of the current month is considered late payment and expect your children to rudely pulled out from their classes and oh, please don't forget, you will not even be advised that they have pulled out your child, you will only know once they have arrived home after a full day's suffering being treated like a "prisoner" --- and that is how my child sees it!
So ok, we are expected to pay a full month's tuition in advance for the following:
1. You are expected to pay a full month's tuition fee in advance for delayed opening of classes, meaning we had paid a full 1 month's tuition fee for only 1 week class in June.
2. You are expected to pay a full month's tuition fee in advance for vacant classes because the teachers were not able to report to school because they have visa problems. Our Big Ate in Grade 3 never had Arabic classes until 2 weeks prior to the quartely exams because there was no teacher due to visa problems.
3. You are expected to pay a full month's tuition fee in advance for your child to go home without learning anything from school because there was no teacher --- oops! as they say, they could not do anything about it because the teacher resigned! So ok, it doesn't matter that they don't have classes as long as you report to school, you are expected to pay 1 full month tuition fee in advanced ---- just because you are there! So, attendance is worth 1 month's full tuition fee in advance, does not matter if your child learns anything or not, that's not part of the equation!
4. You are expected to pay a full month's tuition fee in advance for not knowing what your preschool kids have been doing in school because they were not bringing home their books, there was no syllabus given at the start of the quarter to summarize the topics that will be discussed so you can reinforce the lessons at home. You are expected to answer the assignments without the books for reference, so lucky you if you have a back up text book at home and internet.
5. You are expected to pay a full month's tuition fee in advance to be led to believe that you have enrolled your child into a Montessori school when in fact there were no traces of Montessori materials to be found in the classroom --- what do you expect there was not even a teacher to begin with!!!!
5. You are expected to pay a full month's tuition fee in advance to find out how dirty the classrooms and toilet were at the end of the day.
And so the woes go on and on and on and on... but see the problem with institutions such as these, they were not open to inputs from the very clients they serve. To the owners I guess this was just business and nothing matters except money. As I've heard from other parents the owner even said that it doesn't matter even if she only has 1 student in school as long as the child's tuition fee is paid, and to that i say ---- BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!