In the coming weeks we aim to cover the March to May 2012 period at TBI Kelapa Gading. In this period we will show how school numbers plummeted under the incompetent leadership of Nugraha, aided by Luke Preece! During this period I was in communication with a couple of the teachers there and many former students. The picture they painted was of chaos, due mostly to Nugraha, who was described as lazy and ineffective. We will soon bring you hard proof that school numbers collapsed, including a leaked copy of a Kelapa Gading teaching schedule. But first let’s cover Luke Preece’s shameful attempts to replace Lipi, Cam and I by luring teachers to KG from Bandung with a Preece trademark- false promises.

After I resigned as School Manager of TBI Kelapa Gading on the same day as Cammy and Lipi, the school was chronically short-staffed, especially in terms of Native Speaker teachers. So in stepped Luke Preece to the rescue and the results were- you guessed it- disastrous. As one TBI KG teacher said to me of this time, “The first time I ever heard Luke Preece’s name mentioned, it was in the context of him being a bare-faced liar.”

We all know that recruitment had been made extremely difficult by the DIKNAS regulations and some teachers who wanted to stay in Indonesia were looking for any possible avenue. Into this highly charged atmosphere strode Luke, and he promised 2 TBI teachers from Bandung that TBI Kelapa Gading was able to get them a KITAS even without the correct degree. These two teachers, St***** and A****, arrived at Kelapa Gading, happy to have their dilemma resolved. There was only one problem: Luke Preece was leading them on!

After one week, the remaining TBI teachers at Kelapa Gading sat down with the newbies and told them the truth- there was absolutely no way the new SM, Nugraha, would be able to get them a work visa. Luke had made promises that he had no way of keeping. Understandably, these teachers were outraged, so they tried to ring Preece for clarification. But they found he had taken annual leave and was not contactable. In trying to cover up the huge mess he had made at Kelapa Gading, he lied to 2 TBI teachers, who, like so many others, were duped by his persona of a caring ESL professional. He had got staff so KG was able to continue running, but based on hollow promises that were transparently false.

One of these teachers, S******, quit at once, just 5 days after he arrived. The other one, A***, lasted a second week before he too stormed out of the school, disgusted by the way he had been fooled. Of course, neither Nunu or Firlana took the time to set either of these guys straight: they just strung them along, hoping to fill the hole in the teaching schedule. A*** then moved to Menara Kuningan, yet another victim of Luke Preece’s duplicity.  At this point, TBI Kelapa Gading does not employ any Native Speaker teachers legally, but this has not been as much of a scheduling disaster as you would think, because the number of hours and classes has crashed so dramatically that they simply don’t need that many teachers these days.

And this the company which calls itself a ‘premier language academy’. You have to laugh.