Pannasatra - PUC
Like many businesses in Cambodia and around the world, educational institutions have had a difficult with the quickly changing times that has been brought about by covid. Darwin’s oft misunderstood quote “The survival of the fittest” is usually taken to mean the strongest survive. What he actually meant was, that within the natural world, most often those who adapted to changes quicker than other species, had a higher rate of survival than their competitors. This philosophy can also be applied to the business world, but quite often is not due to a variety of reasons. What follows is the tale of one such English school, once well respected among the locals, that is on course to follow the likes of many companies throughout history. Through its own hubris and pride, it is but a shell of what it once was, this is the story of Pannasastra University, otherwise known as PUC.
This tale begins not at the beginning of covid, but nearly a full year before the virus changed how many view the world. (Some dates may be off by a few weeks due to my own faulty memory) Beginning of April 2019, payday for the staff at the various PUC institutions turned out to what should have been a prelude to one of the most celebrated holidays in Cambodia, turned into a stress filled week and month. The day came a passed by like any other, many staff expecting their pay to be deposited by the end of day. 5 pm, still no pay and no information forthcoming from management on whether we should be expecting it to arrive or if it was maybe delayed during transfer at the bank. Twenty minutes later, we had our answer, it was delayed. How long is the obvious first question many would ask, no answer. Across campuses there was a sporadic work stoppage among the teachers demanding answers, the response or lack of a response would not come until the next day, it is delayed until after the new year. At this point, many foreign teachers and staff were angry, but they were better off than their Cambodian counterparts. It was a devastating answer for many Cambodian teachers, as this is the most important time of year for many, an opportunity to send money to parents, children and extended family. At this point, I will note that the Cambodian teachers had been receiving delayed payments for years, but that is their story to tell, if they so choose.
Fast forward two weeks, the Chancellor responds to a call for a meeting to discuss the delayed payment, as well as future payments. At this meeting many attendees displayed their anger, not necessarily at the delayed payment, but at the lack of communication, respect, and professionalism from upper management regarding the circumstance, a trend that continues to this day. The response from the man in charge at the meeting was to go about his personal philosophy in life, which follows the Japanese concept of nothingness. “Nothing exists that isn’t connected. But connectedness doesn’t exist. It shows itself through things that are connected, but connectedness itself doesn’t exist. You can’t point to it. So, which is more fundamental? Connected things, or connectedness? Connectedness is more fundamental.” You might be asking yourself, why would he be talking about this? Well, so were the teachers and staff that had attended, many coming to the conclusion upper management never intended to hold a meeting with good faith intentions. The following week a memo was sent out to all teachers, salary will be paid in full during the upcoming term break. Coincidentally, this is also when tuitions were due. Much speculation went on during this mini crisis among the staff as anyone with basic math skills could quite easily see they were bringing in much more tuition than expenditures, rents among the campuses were an open secret. Some theories were that the new PSIS was costing more than expected, some claimed they had bought land south, or north of the city for a new University Campus as they had recently lost the lease on South Campus. Some even went so far as to point to the new Takhmao Campus, which is a franchised branch of PUC, owned by the same person who owns PUC. Alas, among all the speculation no answer was ever to come forward.
January, 2020, a warning was sent to all schools to prepare, in case of emergency, prepare for online lessons. During this time all teachers were sent a memo instructing them to familiarize themselves with Google Classroom and other platforms like it, just in case. One month later, 4 days before the end of the current term at PUC, the news was to come, schools are closed and should now all go online. PUC cancelled the last 4 days of class and told all the teachers and students to prepare for online learning in two weeks’ time. What happened next came as sort of a shock to many teachers, PUC has bought an app for online learning, all of their practice learning Google Classroom had come to naught. They were told to come to campus, unpaid, for app training the weekend before the new term was to start. First impressions of the app were not positive, it was a slow, clunky piece of software that was barely functional. Many were confused and concerned, as they would have to walk the students through using the new app while teaching online, a tall order, but they made it work. This was the first of many missteps that Upper management made during the pandemic. Rumor has it, the app cost them a considerable amount of money and the upkeep still does to this day. Why would they get this app instead using an existing platform that everyone was comfortable and confident in using? The answer, control. They didn’t trust their teachers to actual work from home, so they wanted to be able to login into accounts to ensure the job was being done. To this day, many teachers have never once been asked for the login details, even though passwords have been changed, proving this was an ill-conceived plan from the beginning.
While these changes were happening at PUC, Cambodia, and around the world, a half salary payment was missed. This was followed up by a memo from PUC cancelling full time contracts for teachers, pay cut to 50% for all full time administration staff, and stating that salaries would be delayed due to financial difficulties due to covid. This memo was a malicious piece of writing that once again showed the lack of respect upper management has for their staff, they had essentially given themselves permission to illegally cancel contracts and to not pay their employees on time or consistently. Nearly 18 months later, this practice is still happening, with every single employee being owed at least 4 months salary, and many being owed much more.
At the beginning I mentioned adaptability, and many would probably wonder what the institution could have done to not break their legal and social contracts with teachers and students alike. There are many very intelligent administrative staff there who had submitted ideas on how to cut costs to increasing enrollment numbers. First, cutting costs, PUC currently has 4 English program campuses located around Phnom Penh. The suggestion was made to break the lease on one of these campuses but was turned down, stating that there was no problem with finances. What? Then pay your staff. Second, enrollment, by all accounts enrollment is down over 90%, hard to keep a school running with no students. Many times the suggestion was made to offer a discount to students. Some suggested to offer it to all students, some suggested to offer discounts to students who paid before the term started. These suggestions were once again turned down, the reply being, it would tarnish the reputation of the school. Finally, a suggestion was made to start a marketing campaign to attract more students from the provinces. A good suggestion seeing as classes were being taught online anyways and there was no need to actual move to Phnom Penh. This was turned finally turned down by one old man and his pride, “It would make us look desperate.” Being behind at least 4 months salary for all employees and having an enrollment less than a tenth of what it was, makes you desperate.
Merriam Webster defines a business as one that employs or makes use of something or somebody. Especially, a person or company that provides a job paying wages or a salary to one or more people. Pannasastra got the first part right, but is cheating on the second part. It became popular as an educational institution that did not allow cheating in the classroom, it is a bit ironical that that in its death throes, it would go against this very concept, and cheat its employees and students. As a final note, I would like to offer two pieces of advice. First, to all the students and parents considering Pannasatra, send them to ACE. The tuition is cheaper and they have similar programs to PUC. (The author of this piece of writing does not work for ACE) Secondly, to those looking for employment, foreign or Cambodian, apply somewhere else.
This has been sent to local news outlets as well as any websites relating to Cambodia
PUC
- violet
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<not seeing the quote option in my phone here>
“These suggestions were once again turned down, the reply being, it would tarnish the reputation of the school.”
And that is the root of it. Face. Which blinds the ‘victim’ to the consequences of their vehement denial of the reality of the situation. They end up losing face anyway, and take everyone down with them.
Any teachers still working at PUC who have been there long enough to be owed 4 months salary now need to face the cold hard reality of their situation, and know the time ‘to fold ‘em’ is long passed. Leave. Now.
<and the OP needs some paragraphs>
“These suggestions were once again turned down, the reply being, it would tarnish the reputation of the school.”
And that is the root of it. Face. Which blinds the ‘victim’ to the consequences of their vehement denial of the reality of the situation. They end up losing face anyway, and take everyone down with them.
Any teachers still working at PUC who have been there long enough to be owed 4 months salary now need to face the cold hard reality of their situation, and know the time ‘to fold ‘em’ is long passed. Leave. Now.
<and the OP needs some paragraphs>
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch
- Plutarch
- Steve Zodiac
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