Nova
When I was living in Japan, it was virtually impossible to avoid Nova advertising; they were all over the subway, in my newspaper and on TV. For the last few months, the company, the largest of the eikaiwa schools in Japan, has been in free-fall, ever since they got into trouble over their refund policies. The company now seems to be in its death throes.
Teachers working there have had plenty of notice to get out and should have done so, but the implications of such a large company going down the tube are still alarming. Large numbers of teachers may well end up unemployed, and possibly short of money if salaries are unpaid. Larger numbers of students will have lost their paces. There are clearly opportunities for those schools that can pick up these students, but the damage to the industry may well be very serious, combined with the knock-on effect of driving down salaries, which is likely to reduce the quality of teachers available. If salaries fall considerably as a result, then good teachers will start to give Japan a wider berth. From a distance of a few thousand miles, things look ugly for ESL in Japan at the moment.
Categories: Asian Blog
So, now they have gone, and good riddence to them, how have things been affected?
It must be good for other schools as they soak up Nova's students and be more selective/ meaner with recruiting teachers. Has the average salary taken a hit?
I worked for NOVA as a pert-time teacher. Working full-time would have driven me nuts. I started my own small school in Japan which was quite a challenge, but far more rewarding than working for a junk food eikaiwa school.
In the end NOVA screwed everyone.
Every time I am less impress by the reality of Japanese life and standards. First Toyota and even the education. What happened to their Kaizen and TQM stuff which guaranteed 100% quality for generations ?
BEWARE of NOVA To all teachers considering employment at Nova.
Avoid at all costs.
Nova uses subversive and covert tactics to control their teachers and (students)?
Tactics include indoctrination and use of scopolamine(VICE.com) to control new teachers.
Many of the headteachers and trainers are using NLP techniques to try to control the teachers.Obviously they lost a lot of money on NLP training sessions and are bitter.They try to take it out on new teachers.
Actually many of the teachers seem like they are on drugs, may be they have to to keep up with the schedule-8 hours straight teaching with short 10 mins between.Consider some of the older teachers having been doing that for 10-20 years.It is no surprise.
If you show any sign of refusal-they will sit you down in a closed room and interrogate you for over 1 hour.
Avoid at all costs.
I spoke to a teacher in Tokyo recently who suggested that the new Nova was worse than the old one, but this talk of their using scopolamine is just plain weird.