Tzu Chi International School (TCISKL) Kuala Lumpur
Reviews & Information

Low quality organization with poor standards of hiring and admittance to school. Traffic flow is always congested, and no parking space available. This creates a very noisy and chaotic background which is not conducive for learning. Staff members are also rude and disrespectful, some teachers come from corporate / business background rather than education background. It is quite weird how a renown charity group like Tzu Chi can end up with some of the worldliest, profit-oriented type of people working for them.

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Overrated. It’s an OK school at best. Great facilities but unfortunately the younger ones (at least for my child’s year) have not really gotten the chance to use it. Example, PE is held in LG2 when they have a beautiful sports hall or outdoor field. They were very recently only allowed to go to the playground once a week… School does really well in their marketing but it’s really the case of overselling themselves. Agree with other commenters that it’s really a glorified Chinese school. Lack of diversity. Headmistress is unreachable. Does not respond to anything. Recent sports day was not managed properly..not all year 1 students were allowed to participate, not sure how did they decide who gets to participate and who doesn’t but not very inclusive. Medals were given to some winners and some did not receive any until 3 weeks later.. no communication whatsoever. I can understand why a lot people are trying to get into this school because of its offerings which not many other school has. It’s not as tough as a Chinese school yet not as liberal as an international school. However, while it sounds great on paper. I find the school is struggling with its identity and has much to work on esp senior management.

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It is a nice school, new with good facilities. School tries to communicate regularly to parents. Whenever there is problem, e.g. dismissal and pick up arrangement, the school will take on parent's advice and immediately implement changes. Teachers respond to parent's query in a timely manner. I saw some parents rating this school lowly because their child is not admitted. It is true that demand is higher than supply and it is very difficult to enter this school. You may be in the waiting list and will never get chance to get it, but that does not warrant rating the school 1.

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Looks can be deceiving. 1. Superiors lack of empathy - some colleagues requested for leave without pay on a leisure day, some superiors "suggested" the colleagues to change days even though they mentioned it was family matters. Some of the higher ups who rarely or no longer are teaching are still living in their 80's, 90's teaching lifestyle, they are delusional enough to state that the newer generations of teachers are lazy, always complaining when some of them could barely manage a class of 25 students, they constantly side with Karen parents and are constantly "disappointed" in us since we are no longer the loyal employees who are naive enough to work overtime and willing to eat dirt while being paid peanuts, times have changed, please remember we teachers are human beings and always will be, we have a life outside of teaching, we have dreams and aspirations in wanting to nurture future generations, but constantly berating and overworking us will extinguish our passion for teaching, those who are, leave, then please don't complain that you can't get "good teachers". 2. Quantity over quality - talks about quality but expects employees to work overtime, some higher ups hinted and somewhat endorses the behaviour 3. Employees forced to work during the holidays - we only have 2 weeks of holidays during our year end, even though it's "legal" but compared to other schools, we have the shortest amount and time of holidays, one of the superiors told us to compare so here we are. 4. Volatile work culture - constantly changing and deciding how employees should work, must be standardized. Incredibly redundant and cumbersome paperwork 5. More work same or less pay based on the proportions 6. Incompetent superiors - work culture here is all about ass kissing, its alright if your teaching quality or work ethic is terrible so long as you stroke their fragile egos you will be loved and they will keep you around 7. Teachers with personal agendas - vegetarian school but treats the thought and sight of meat like the world will end - students are prohibited from mentioning about meat products and some teachers will teach things that are against scientific facts, but of course, the school will say that we've chosen this school so we have no right to complain, but teaching the wrong ideas will cause misconception which will stunt nature of learning 8. Controlling under the pretence of standardisation and being presentable - teachers are not allowed to function as a normal individual or human being, teachers not allowed to eat at their workstations while they rush us to work, teachers are constantly policed on what to do 9. Overworking - under the pretence of that this is all part of the teaching description, that's true, but if you have teachers constantly dreading about relieving other classes due to the reason that they have to teach based on the lesson plan and whether they are able to manage the students properly then it's a problem

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There are many meetings to attend in a week. Ad hoc meetings are common. In many cases where the meeting cannot solve the problem or reach a consensus, teachers will expect to have more meetings to discuss the same matter. To be frank, most of the meetings are unnecessary as the materials can be conveyed by an email. I don’t see the point of calling teachers for meetings just to read off the slides. Teachers in this school need to undertake a lot of paperworks. Many duties that are not within the job scopes also need to be completed by the teachers. Teachers have different additional workloads to complete with a short duration given. The school also rambles and focuses on things that don't solve contemporary problems but rather to boost their ego and power trip. The school is also very concerned about the opinions of parents. The teachers are often asked to change the procedures/work patterns after the parents give their opinions. When encountering a problem, the school will not stand on the teacher's standpoint, nor will they defend the teacher. Many times, teachers do not get the respect they deserve. The school will contact the teacher day and night. It is not a surprise to be contacted at late hours (8pm/9pm) and have the work done by 8am the next morning. Occasionally, expect to be contacted while you are on medical leave. The school expects the teachers to be a blind followers. It is best that you do not have your own opinions and just support their decisions. Teachers can try to voice out your opinion but be prepared to be targeted as the higher ups are going to turn it back against you and make it your problem. They are not open-minded enough to accept feedback or opinions. Higher ups may not have adequate or up to date experience in teaching hence the lack of empathy and understanding of the teachers’ workload. To summarize: ~ Heavy workload ~ Minimum to no increment ~ Expected OT from higher ups ~ Being berated over trivial things ~ Poor communications between the higher ups ~ Disproportionate pay versus work ~ Higher ups’ personal vendetta against certain departments ~ New teachers being exploited ~ Hostile work environment (from higher ups)

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They failed it, after follow up they said they will update after a week. Finally they gave reply on 24th August 2020, stating they still kept my kid on reserve list, if they happen to get a vacancy they will update us. Disappointing, the school which supposed to teach humanistic values is not transparent and they need to diversify their intake if they stand by the name of "International" and admissions should be offered on first come first serve basis as there is nothing to judge about 4 year old kid. Also if they really want their humanistic values to be carried forwarded to all corners of society, they should take pupil from all backgrounds.

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Beautiful school, excellent facilities however I felt the teacher's pool lacks racial diversity. I'm not suggesting the need to have expats but would be nice to have a better mix of background to truly harvest the meaning of an 'international school'. That said, for the many months of online learning during the pandemic I am touched with the patience & dedication of the teachers to ensure students remained engaged. Some went above & beyond to provide extra class (subject: Mandarin) for the weaker students. Its Humanistic subject is a key differentiator for me to send my child here.

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I think it is a great school however at some point I find it overpriced. The teachers are strict enough to make students improve, some are very fun to interact with! If it wasn't because of the price I would give it a 5 star rating.

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it is big. teachers is nice. teach use responsibility.

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The humanistic education that Tzu Chi provides is like no other. Instilling good moral and humanistic values will bring them far in life, much more so than scoring excellent grades in academics.

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