"This is your problem; it's not our problem": Implications for Management and Justice
Ali Mansouri
Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL / Writer, Researcher, Consultant
“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.” -- Albert Einstein
“If your only tool is a hammer?then every problem looks like a nail.”
"Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them."?- Henry Ford
"We only think when we are confronted with problems."?- John Dewey
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Introduction
Our lives are full of problems of all sorts: personal, professional, emotional, academic, study problems, family problems, health problems, mental problems, and so on. Some problems are small in size, scope, and effect; others are big with far-reaching effects. As ordinary human beings with ordinary intelligence, we can handle all sorts of problems as long as they are within our control and can implement the solutions as long as these solutions are reasonable and workable and without inflicting any harm on others and society because they are within the law. Some other problems are too big for us to handle or are not within our capacity or authorization to find a viable solution for them or we do not have the resources to implement the solution even though it is clear and straightforward.
Human beings have a very limited degree of patience. They can live with problems for a limited period but they cannot wait forever, especially when the problems are life-threatening, life-changing, or will have drastic effects on them, their future, or their families. So they "take the law into their hands" which always leads to undesirable results.
There are thousands and thousands of problems almost everywhere in the world and in all sorts of organizations and institutions: schools, colleges, universities, companies, and corporations down to the smallest unit of human activity in society. The measure of success lies not in denying or avoiding problems but in the problem-solving techniques and procedures adopted to solve these problems. Problems will always come to us whether we like them or not. To ignore them, deny them, or try to get around them is a very bad and ineffective policy that will certainly lead to failure.
Employees in any organization expect the line managers, senior managers, top executives, and all the others in the hierarchy of management to work out reasonable solutions to all the problems that arise in the workplace, especially when these solutions are not within the reach or authorization of the employees. If you allocate a class of eighty students to a teacher to teach in a classroom that accommodates and allows the teaching of only twenty students, then this is a serious educational problem the management and the educational authorities need to solve. It is very unwise to throw the problem at the teacher and tell them: "this is your problem; it is not our problem" just because he is the teacher of the class. Unfortunately, this is what happens almost everywhere when incompetent, stupid, and corrupt managers throw all the problems on their employees and require them to solve even the big problems without giving them the resources or the authorization to do so.
Regrettably, this applies to most of the governments of our miserable world nowadays. Governments and officials, corrupt or incompetent, throw all sorts of problems on their fellow citizens and residents and ask them to solve the problems: unemployment, inflation, civil disorder, insecurity, and all kinds of shortages: water, fuel, housing, food, and so on. Why do people elect, or select, governments and officials who are only spectators and do not do anything to make life run smoothly for their fellow citizens? Why do we need such bad governments?
"This is your problem; not our problem": A Disgusting Statement
As human beings, we need to sympathize with one another even if we do not have the power or ability to solve the problem of any friend or colleague or just a passer-by. To tell anyone, "This is your problem; it is not our problem" is impolite, disgusting, and inhumane. Whether the other person needs our help or not, whether we can offer any help or not, there is no need for this disgusting statement. This applies strongly to our line managers, senior managers, or top managers when we go to them asking for help or for a reasonable solution to the problem we are facing in the workplace. It is not a personal problem. It is a work problem that may affect many people and many employees, if not immediately, then sometime in the future.
Let us assume a teacher has a classroom management problem with one of his classes because they lack discipline and the classroom is very crowded. This is not an uncommon problem in most schools, colleges, and universities nowadays. The teacher seeks help from the principal or the Dean of his college. Instead of working out a plausible and practical solution for this classroom management problem with the teacher, the principal or the Dean throws the problem on the teacher telling him, "This is your problem, not our problem" ignoring their basic duty in school, which is to solve problems not to throw them on their teachers or to ignore them.
Problems do not always fall into clear-cut categories that are completely separated from one another. Different types of problems impact one another. Personal problems may affect and create professional problems and vice versa. Financial problems may lead to family problems; environmental problems can drastically impact health problems, and so on. Whatever our position in the hierarchy of management, we should take this fact seriously and pay attention to how problems affect our employees, our teachers, our students, and all those involved in the problems. This is an essential requirement for growth and success in companies, schools, colleges, universities, and all other sorts of organizational units, small and big.
The biggest problem in the workplace is when the senior and top managers create problems for their employees and the students in schools and higher education institutions because they are stupid, incompetent, and corrupt senior and top managers. This is what has been happening at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman and many other companies and higher education institutions in the Middle East.
What is Problem-Solving?
In cognitive psychology, the term 'problem-solving' refers to the mental process that people go through to identify, analyze, and solve problems. It also refers to the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles
According to Sarathy (2018), " Real world problem-solving (RWPS) is what we do every day. It requires flexibility, resilience, resourcefulness, and a certain degree of creativity. A crucial feature of RWPS is that it involves continuous interaction with the environment during the problem-solving process. In this process, the environment can be seen as not only a source of inspiration for new ideas but also as a tool to facilitate creative thinking."
Sarathy cited Archimedes as an example whose experiment was embodied in the real world when he found his solution. He says," In fact, the real world helped him solve the problem. Real world problem solving (RWPS) is different from those that occur in a classroom or in a laboratory during an experiment. They are often dynamic and discontinuous, accompanied by many starts and stops. Solvers are never working on just one problem. Instead, they are simultaneously juggling several problems of varying difficulties and alternating their attention between them. "(1)
A problem exists when there is a goal to be achieved but the process by which we will achieve it is not obvious to us. Dunbar (2017) explains how such a problem may exist and how it can be solved:
"In the movie?The Gold Rush?Charlie Chaplin and his friend are stranded in a log cabin in the middle of winter while a blizzard rages. The cabin is isolated, and they have a?very?big problem – there is nothing to eat. They pace around wondering what to do. Charlie's friend starts to see Charlie as a chicken, and he tries to kill him. He chases Charlie around the cabin many times. Eventually they hit upon the idea of boiling an old boot and eating it for dinner. With great delicacy they sit at the table and eat the boot as if it were a gourmet meal. They solved the problem of having nothing to eat. While their solution to the problem did not result in a culinary feast, this example reveals two crucial features of problem solving. First, a problem exists when a goal must be achieved and the solution is not immediately obvious. Second, problem solving often involves attempting different ways to solve the problem. Put more formally, a problem has four components. First, there is an initial state. This is the person's state of knowledge at the start of a problem. Second, there is the goal state: the goal that the person wishes to achieve. Third are the actions or operations that the problem-solver can use to get to the goal state. Fourth is the task environment that the solver is working in. The task environment consists of the features of the physical environment that can either directly or indirectly constrain or suggest different ways of solving a problem." (2)
Problem-Solving Strategies
The world is full of problems. There is no country, no company, no institution, no organization, no workplace without problems. We all have problems. Some of these problems might be small, some might be catastrophic, and others fall in between. As ordinary people, we learn how to handle some of our problems, but not all of them. Most often, people need some help and support from the organization they work for. We take it for granted that every organizational unit, big or small, has some problem-solving strategies and procedures to deal with the problems facing their workers and employees. The successful organization is not the one without problems but the one with effective problem-solving strategies and concrete procedures to follow for each problem.
The best strategy for solving problems is not to ignore them or throw them on the shoulders of employees who, most often, need help and support from the organization as it has far more resources than the individual worker in addition to the money that is generally regarded as an effective tool to solving problems.
Problems do not go away by themselves or by just ignoring them. They may become bigger and bigger and may become a real threat to the successful operations of the organization and even a real threat to its existence. Whether we are line managers, executives, top managers, or business owners, we must work through the problems. We should never ignore them as they may become serious barriers to the growth and development of the organization. The best approach then is to go through the problem to solve it and remove its root causes rather than go around it and ignore its solution.
Managers and those in charge of the organization should always try their best to create the right atmosphere, the right processes, and the right systems that facilitate problem-solving. If managers do not use their powers and resources for positive change and for solving problems, they become part of the problem. The attitudes and the responses of the managers and those in charge are very important to solving problems in the organization. How they view problems in general is a big part of the way they solve these problems. Do they think that problems are unavoidable in any workplace or organization or are they opportunities to learn new things from them?
Many tools and strategies can be used to solve problems, and some problems may require more than one of these strategies to come up with a solution. We may deal here with some of them.
Algorithms
An?algorithm?is a step-by-step procedure that, by following certain "rules" produces a solution. Algorithms are commonly used in mathematics to solve division or multiplication problems. But they can be used in other fields as well.
In psychology, algorithms can be used to help identify individuals with a greater risk of mental health issues. For instance, research suggests that certain algorithms might help us recognize children with an elevated risk of suicide or self-harm.
"Suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents within Canada. While several risk factors have been found associated with increased risk, appropriate decision-support tools are needed to identify children who are at the highest risk for suicide and self-harm. The RiSsK algorithm provides a psychometrically sound decision-support tool that may be used to identify children and youth who exhibit signs and symptoms noted to increase the likelihood of suicide and self-harm." (3)
There are also concerns when machine learning is involved—also known as?Artificial Intelligence?(AI)—such as whether they can accurately predict human behaviors. (4)
Heuristics
Heuristics?are shortcut strategies that people can use to solve a problem at hand. These "rule of thumb" approaches allow us to simplify complex problems, reducing the total number of possible solutions to a more manageable set.
If you find yourself sitting in a traffic jam, for example, you may quickly consider other routes, taking one to get moving once again. When shopping for a new car, you might think back to a prior experience when negotiating got you a lower price, then employ the same tactics.
While heuristics may be helpful when facing smaller issues, major decisions should not necessarily be made using a shortcut approach. Heuristics also don't guarantee an effective solution, such as when trying to drive around a traffic jam only to find yourself on an equally crowded route.
Decision-making under risk has been variably characterized and examined in many different disciplines. However, interdisciplinary integration has not been forthcoming. Classic theories of decision-making have not been amply revised in light of greater empirical data on actual patterns of decision-making behavior. Furthermore, the meta-theoretical framework of evolution by natural selection has been largely ignored in theories of decision-making under risk in the human behavioral sciences. In this review, I critically examine four of the most influential theories of decision-making from economics, psychology, and biology: expected utility theory, prospect theory, risk-sensitivity theory, and heuristic approaches. I focus especially on risk-sensitivity theory, which offers a framework for understanding decision-making under risk that explicitly involves evolutionary considerations. I also review robust empirical evidence for individual differences and environmental/situational factors that predict actual risky decision-making that any general theory must account for. (5)
Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the?cognitive load?of?making a decision. (6)
Examples that employ heuristics include using?trial and error, a?rule of thumb,?or an?educated guess.
Heuristics are the strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems. These strategies depend on using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control?problem-solving?in human beings, machines, and abstract issues. (7), (8)?
When an individual applies a heuristic in practice, it generally performs as expected. However, it can alternatively create systematic errors.
Concerning questions of fact, people use heuristics, but that also leads to systematic errors. People use moral heuristics too – moral shortcuts, or rules of thumb, that lead to mistaken and even absurd moral judgments. These judgments are highly relevant not only to morality but to law and politics as well. Examples are given from several domains, including risk regulation, punishment, reproduction and sexuality, and the act/omission distinction. In all of these contexts, rapid, intuitive judgments make a great deal of sense but sometimes produce moral mistakes that are replicated in law and policy. One implication is that moral assessments ought not to be made by appealing to intuitions about exotic cases and problems; those intuitions are particularly unlikely to be reliable. Another implication is that some deeply held moral judgments are unsound if they are products of moral heuristics. (9)
In?psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, either learned or inculcated by evolutionary processes. These psychological heuristics have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments, and solve problems. These rules typically come into play when people face complex problems or incomplete information. Researchers employ various methods to test whether people use these rules. The rules have been shown to work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases can lead to systematic errors or?cognitive biases. (10)
Trial and Error
The most fundamental heuristic is trial and error, which can be used in everything from matching nuts and bolts to finding the values of variables in algebra problems. In mathematics, some common heuristics involve the use of visual representations, additional assumptions, forward/backward reasoning, and simplification. Here are a few commonly used heuristics from?George Pólya's 1945 book,?How to Solve It. (11)
·???????? If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture.
·???????? If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward").
·???????? If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.
·???????? Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success).
A trial-and-error approach to problem-solving involves trying several potential solutions to a particular issue, and then ruling out those you think will not work. This can be a good strategy to use if you have a limited number of solutions available. But if there are many different choices available, narrowing down the possible options using another problem-solving technique can be helpful before attempting trial and error.
Trial and error is another type of heuristic in which people use several different strategies to solve something until they find what works. Examples of this type of heuristic are evident in everyday life. (12)?People use trial and error when they are playing video games, finding the fastest driving route to work, and learning to ride a bike (or learning any new skill).
Insight
In some cases, the solution to a problem can appear as a sudden insight when we have encountered a similar situation to our current problem in the past. This can help us draw connections between different events. We may ask ourselves how we approached the previous situation and adapt those solutions to the problem we are currently trying to solve.
Insight can occur when the problem in front of us is similar to an issue that we have dealt with in the past.? However; we may not recognize what is occurring since the underlying mental processes that lead to insight often happen outside of?conscious awareness.
Insight problem-solving is an invaluable skill that can help us solve problems more effectively.?By exercising creative thinking, taking a break, making connections, following intuition, and asking for help, we can gain insight into the problem and come up with viable solutions.
A review by Kounios and Beeman (2014) defines insight as any sudden comprehension, realization, or problem solution that involves?a reorganization of the elements of a subject's mental representation of a stimulus, situation, or event to yield a non-obvious or nondominant interpretation. (13)
Problem-Solving Procedures
The following are some of the most common procedures for solving problems:(14)
Procedure 1: Define The Problem
The first procedure in the problem-solving process is identifying and defining the problem. Without fully understanding the problem, the problem-solver cannot move further. We need to define the problem and make it as precise as possible. When working in a team, we need to describe the context and make sure the problem is understood by all those who are involved in the decision-making process.
We might feel challenged when assessing the full scope of a problem or situation if we are closely involved with it. In these cases, we may need to visualize the problem by taking the time to focus on each element.
Taking the time to define the problem can help identify certain elements to create a plan to resolve them. For example, a university with a high employee turnover rate may focus on quickly hiring new employees to solve the immediate problem of being understaffed. If the hiring manager took the time to define the problem, they may realize that their salaries are very low compared with their competitors. With this information, the hiring manager may recommend higher salaries more incentives for newcomers, and more incentives for the existing employees to increase employee retention.
Procedure 2: Analyze The Problem
The second step to solving a problem is analyzing the problem. It helps the problem-solver understand the nature of the problem and find the possible ways out. Develop some creative problem-solving questions in this stage, such as why it is a problem, why it is required to solve it, how to find the solution, what barriers and opportunities lie within the problem, what effect it will cause if the problem is not resolved, and so on. Developing these questions and assigning answers to them will help give a clear picture of the problem and help prepare the appropriate strategy for solving it.
Procedure 3: Develop Potential Solutions
After analyzing the problem, the problem-solver needs to look for potential solutions. It is essential to come up with multiple viable solutions to a problem because we do not know yet what outcomes the action is going to bring about. That is why we should have alternatives in all possible ways to solve the problem so that we can compare them and pick the best one.?
In this regard, we have to set a standard with which we will compare the expected outcomes of the potential solutions.
Procedure 4: Evaluate The Options
After listing down the potential solutions to the problem, the next task is to analyze and evaluate the options. This will help us determine the most effective and suitable solution to the problem. Now it comes to how to evaluate the options. We may do it almost in the same way we have analyzed the problem before. This means asking some questions and comparing the answers for different options.
Procedure 5: Select The Best Option
After evaluating all the possible solutions and tailoring the list, we have a concise list of solutions to the problem. Now we have to choose the best solution among these options. Select the solution that is best fitted to the organizational cultures and goals, and meets all the criteria that have been set for evaluating the options. In this case, experience, courage, and decision-making skills will help us to determine the option.??
However, we may consult our peers as it would give us different insights into the situation. After selecting the best-suited solution, we make the necessary documentation and submit it to the decision-maker for approval.
Procedure 6: Implement The Solution
We have selected the solution to the problem and got it approved by the higher authority. Now it is time to go for action and use our problem-solving skills. So, at first, we have to prepare a detailed work plan putting all the necessary elements into it. We have to ensure that everyone on our team understands the plan and what are their responsibilities to make the plan fruitful. We therefore need to communicate?well with everyone involved in the plan.?
The plan should also include actions to be taken if something goes wrong or does not go just like we thought it would. This is important to make a concrete plan. After setting the plan, we must arrange everything as required, put the solution into action, and wait for the results.?
Procedure 7: Measure The Results
Our duty is not finished with the implementation of the solution. We have to keep track to measure the results and make sure the plan is performing well to solve the problem. Great leaders always keep follow-ups and proper documentation of their actions. It’s helpful in their future challenges and acts as a guideline for their successors. Moreover, it will help us show a scalable and notable outcome of our plan to the authority.?
A'Sharqiyah University: Problems without Limits
There?are too many episodes and documents certifying that many top and senior managers at A’Sharqiyah University in Oman are stupid, incompetent, reckless, ruthless, and corrupt. They are unbelievably selfish and have inflicted heavy damage on the University. They do not solve any problem for any teacher, student, or employee. They create problems for everyone. A'Sharqiyah University deserves better managers than idiots like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi who mistakenly believe they are above the University's Charter, bylaws, and all the regulations of the University. This is why they have been abusing the employees and the students and have been creating too many problems out of their stupidity, ignorance, and incompetence.
The Board of Directors and Board of Trustees bear the official, academic, and moral responsibility for appointing such idiots as senior managers. These idiots do not fit to manage and lead a higher, or lower, educational institution.
When you talk to them, you feel they are very superficial people who do not have any deep knowledge about academic programs academic issues, or problem-solving strategies and policies. They are ignorant, vulgar, and rotten in mentality, and uncivilized in behavior.
For shortage of time and space, I will mention here only a few of the problems created by these idiots and will tackle the rest of the problems in the coming articles.
Student Transport
The University has been established to serve A’Sharqiyah region which is one of the most underdeveloped parts of Oman and the world. It is located about 150 Km from Muscat, the capital city of the Sultanate of Oman. The road is one of the most dangerous roads in Oman and is nicknamed “The Death Road”. There are many car accidents every day, maybe every hour, with many fatalities.
A'Sharqiyah University was built in the middle of the desert in the North of A'Sharqiyah region far away from the main road or any paved road. The University was, and is, inaccessible without a private car or a taxi or another vehicle.
The University started its educational operations by conducting the Placement Test on 28 November 2010 and then teaching on 1 December 2010. The University used to provide accommodation in dormitories for female students only; the male students had to find their accommodation in the private sector, usually flats and houses and there were not many of them in Ibra, where the University is located, as Ibra is a very small undeveloped town with many scattered villages. The University hired only a few buses, only four as far as I remember, for the transport of thousands of female students to and from the dormitories. The buses were too few to transport all the female students smoothly as they used to carry far more than their capacity. Each bus used to carry more than 50 students whereas its normal capacity was between 18 and 20. Too many students used to stand on the buses and this used to cause many car accidents most students used to come too late for their classes in the Foundation Program in the Language Center and too late for their lectures in the Study Program in the Colleges. You can imagine how many problems and clashes used to happen between the teachers and the students who used to come too late for their classes and lectures.
Surprisingly, after more than 10 years, A'Sharqiyah University students still have the same acute problem of accommodation and transport, especially for male students. Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, Mohammed Al-Barashdi, and other senior managers have been unable to solve any problem and have always followed "don't care policies" with the students. Just go to A'Sharqiyah University now and see the problem by yourself.
Student Tuition Fees
Most of the students, females, and males, at A'Sharqiyah University are from poor families. Many of these families live on social security allowances and the money they get is hardly enough for their basic needs. Because of this miserable situation, many Social Security students are unable to pay their tuition fees on time according to the rigid timelines of payment set up by the University. Abood Al-Sawafi, the then VC, Hamed Al-Hajri, his Assistant VC, Mohammed Al-Barashdi, the Director of Student Affairs, used to go around the classrooms and the lecture rooms to kick the students out and deprive them of their lectures if they had not paid their tuition fees on time. This used to embarrass the students and cause great shame to them and their families, especially those from the villages.
This disgusting, uncivilized way of forcing students to pay their tuition fees is still going on without any shame on the part of the Accountants, the top managers of A'Sharqiyah University, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi who is the Director of Student Affairs Department and is supposed to defend the students' rights and dignity, not to embarrass them and intimidate them in front of their classmates and their teachers.?
Garbage Foundation Program
The General Foundation Program (GFP) was one of the most successful programs at A’Sharqiyah University and in Oman as a whole. It has been designed as per the International standards and benchmarks of Foundation Programs. It used to consist of four components: English Component, Mathematics Component, Computing, and IT Component with the General and Academic Study Skills component taught in specific courses and also built in the other three components. All components follow the criteria and standards of higher education as stipulated by the Ministry of Higher Education and other education and accreditation authorities.
The Program was of very high quality and was effective in helping students attain the prescribed student learning outcomes in at least four areas of learning: English, Mathematics, Computing and IT, and General and Academic Study Skills. It was very popular among students and their parents and the University gained a very good academic reputation for it. Students used to refuse to move to other colleges and universities without completing the Foundation Program at the University. Then came Abood Al-Sawafi, VC, and his Assistant VC, Hamed Al-Hajri illegally canceled the Foundation Program in violation of all the legal obligations of the University towards its students and their genuine interests and in defiance of the Ministry of Higher Education and all accreditation authorities.
?So what did they do?
·???????? Instead of 15-20 students in the classroom, you find now 40 or 50 or even 60 students! Instead of spacious classrooms, you find tiny and cramped classes where the students cannot even move, let alone engage in any classroom activity. Instead of new prints of textbooks and activity books, you find used and torn-out books that are useless for teaching and learning. These used and useless books are distributed to the students and retrieved from them at the end of each semester and each year, although this has no educational value and is completely illegal.
·???????? So what has been left of the original Foundation Program? Nothing at all -- just garbage! The Program is now in shambles; it has no beginning and no end and has no educational goals or strategies. The aim is now just to make the students pass this “garbage thing” to satisfy the requirement imposed by the Ministry of Higher Education that all students should pass the Foundation Program before registering for their academic studies. The Placement Test is now controlled by corrupt managers who cancel it for anyone who is prepared to pay the tuition fees.
For more details, read my article: " From Hero to Zero: From a Foundation Program to a Garbage Program", LinkedIn December 23, 2017.
Fake and Useless Study Programs
To illustrate how fake the academic programs are at A’Sharqiyah University, we will take the B.Sc. in Engineering program as an example. This program, in any decent and respected university, will focus on the academic courses needed by engineers with extensive fieldwork to give the students confidence and pre-job practical experience. You will be shocked to find out that at A’Sharqiyah University Engineering College students spend most of their time studying courses that have nothing to do with engineering: Arabic Language, Pre-Islamic Literature, Omani Civilization, Omani Culture, Islamic Studies, Philosophy, Psychology, and other similar courses.?All of these courses are taught in Arabic and many of them should have been mastered by the students during their school years before joining the university. So where are the engineering courses? They deal mostly with Math: Math 1, Math 2, Math 3, Math 4, etc. What a garbage program!
This is why you find only a?few students registering or staying with the College of Engineering at A’Sharqiyah University. Just go and count them!
You find a similar picture with almost all the study programs of the University. Where is the Ministry of Higher Education?! What are they doing?!
Pirated Teaching Handouts
They canceled the use of books and references for teaching in all college programs and gave awkward instructions to the teachers to use “handouts” instead of books and references. These are tiny handouts made up of a few pages that students are asked to have photocopied from the original books and references at their own expense. The students are compelled to pay for all the photocopied materials used in teaching and assignments.; otherwise, they will not be allowed to attend their lectures.?These?tiny handouts represent an awkward and outdated style of teaching that does not fit modern academic requirements. They are also illegal as per the International Copyright Laws. They are photocopied without legal permission from their original writers or publishers.
Teaching at A’Sharqiyah University has thus been reduced to dull lectures and boring presentations. There are no tutorials discussion sessions or even question-answer activities. Students just learn by heart the contents of the handouts and sit for written exams. The answers they write are just memorized information from the handouts. The student's academic life has been reduced to a worthless process of quizzes, tests,?and exams which are mostly of a very low level—lower than a high school level! Is this university teaching?!?
When you go to any respectable university in the world, the lecturer would give you each course a list of?Readings, another list of?Recommended Readings, and a third list for?Further Readings. This is the minimum. You go to A’Sharqiyah University, you find unqualified, uneducated, and vulgar senior management asking you to make up your “handouts” for the students or specify the chapters for the students to photocopy at their expense. The students never see or touch a book in their four or five years of academic study.
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Worthless Degrees and Certificates
In all documents and websites, A’Sharqiyah University says that “English is the medium of instruction at the University.” according to the University’s charter, laws, and bylaws. It is also the official requirement of the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman as per the Ministerial Decision (78/2009) issued by the Ministry of Higher Education to officially permit A’Sharqiyah University to operate as a higher education provider using English as the medium of instruction.
But Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamed Al-Hajri, being in control of everything at the University, have disregarded this official obligation and turned it upside down.?They have made Arabic the language of instruction.?Just go to A’Sharqiyah University website, A’Sharqiyah Facebook page, and other pages on the Internet, you will be bombarded with information and notices telling you about the courses being taught in Arabic at the University: B.A. in Education, B.A. in Arts, B.A. in Archives and Documentation, B.A. in Management, Diploma in Management, B.A. in Educational Counseling, B.A.in Business Studies, and even M.A. in Business Administration (MBA). So how does the University claim that “English is the medium of instruction”?!
Anybody who has the simplest idea about employment opportunities in Oman and in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries would realize this dangerous trend of deception and cheating being practiced by Hamed Al-Hajri and A’Sharqiyah University. If university graduates in Oman and the GCC do not possess a good command of English, then their chances of getting employment in the private sector are almost zero.?Companies go around the colleges and universities in Oman to interview senior students for employment opportunities with them. The first thing they look for is the students' level of English and whether their program of study is taught in English. If the students’ command of English is very weak or their degrees and certificates are not in English, companies will never recruit them. This is because most of the companies and corporations working in Oman and the GCC countries are multinationals and they deal with global customers who mostly use English for communication.?This tells us what a bleak future awaits A’Sharqiyah University students after graduation. They are being deceived and cheated by the senior managers and all the decision-makers who are in charge of the academic programs at the University.
It is no surprise that the vast majority of the male graduates of A'Sharqiyah University work now as “taxi drivers” or farm laborers and the female graduates as “housewives”! The rosy future the top and senior managers promised them upon joining the University has always been a big, nasty lie.
Cheating in Tests and Exams
Testing is a very important process that needs to go hand in hand with teaching not only as a measurement tool but also as an essential tool of feedback for teachers to see where their teaching is useful and where it is not, what areas of the syllabus and portions of the textbook have been taught and covered well and what areas and portions need more teaching and more recycling and more emphasis. There must thus be quizzes, monthly and midterm tests, and final exams. All these must be done in an academic, reliable, and well-planned fashion and an educational environment in line with the general goals of education.
It is very damaging that the infrastructure for testing is inadequate or non-existent at A'Sharqiyah University as most of the buildings have been designed for teaching (not testing) or as a luxury hotel for top executives and managers. The buildings of the University have been designed to offer maximum comfort and luxury to the top executives, managers, and administrative staff as if they were building a 5-star hotel for top officials instead of an academic campus. You can hardly find spacious exam rooms where you can arrange the seating of students at a distance and in such a way as to prevent cheating in tests and exams. So teachers have no alternative but to arrange the tests and exams in the same classrooms they are assigned for teaching. The timetables themselves do not allow the teachers to seek support from other teachers in proctoring or marking. Most teachers feel very unhappy and uncomfortable conducting tests and exams for their students, especially when these students are difficult to control in normal teaching sessions.
To disregard all the requirements above, and you still want to realize your goals and achieve success in teaching and education is very unrealistic, very stupid, and a waste of time and money. Regrettably, this is what is happening now in all colleges and programs at A'Sharqiyah University where the blame for failure is placed entirely on the shoulders of the teachers rather than on the absence of all the academic and education requirements we have already talked about.
academic, reliable, and well-planned fashion and in an educational environment in line with the general goals of education.
Another damaging aspect of testing is the bitter fact that most of the teachers, especially expatriate teachers, are afraid of catching students cheating or preventing them from cheating as this will create big problems for them and will mean the end of their work contract. This is exactly the situation at Rustaq College of Education (now Rustaq College of Applied Sciences) where I worked for many years as an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL and then as the Head of the Department of the English Language and Literature. It is also the same situation at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman where I worked as an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL and as the Director of the Language Center and Foundation Program for many years. I caught many students and teachers cheating in different ways and reported them to the Registration and Examination Committees. Many Rustaq College officials were unhappy about this catch and reported the incidents to Sa'aeed Al-Rubaii, who was then the Director of the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman. In the case of A'Sharqiyah University, I used to report the incidents to Abood Al-Sawafi who was then the VC of A'Sharqiyah University, and to Hamed Al-Hajri, the Assistant VC for Administration and Finance. I was shocked that they used to take no action at all against the students or the teachers. On the contrary, they used to renew the work contracts of those teachers I caught cheating year after year. After a while, I realized that they were running "gangs" of some students and teachers who used to facilitate cheating, leaking exam questions, and forging students' grades in return for money, favors, and sex. The whole system is completely broken.
Forgery of Grades
It was not a great shock to me to find out that Abood Al-Sawafi had forged his son’s (Salim Al-Sawafi’s) grades and placed him on the Advanced level of the Foundation Program instead of the Intermediate level because I knew that Abood Al-Sawafi has always been, and will always be, a rogue and corrupt person. He has always forged students’ grades and documents wherever he takes up a senior position which enables him to do so in any college or a university in Oman.
As soon as I found out about Abood Al-Sawafi’s forgery, I went to the Registrar and asked him why he “forged the grades”. He replied, “Abood Al-Sawafi ordered me to do it”! Because Abood Al-Sawafi ordered him to forge the grades, the Registrar did the forgery. Does this dishonest person deserve to be the Registrar at A’Sharqiyah University or any university? How much forgery has he been doing at the request of this official or that or just for cash?! It is a great pity that the Registrar whom we had trusted before proved himself a very dishonest person, a puppet, and a corrupt registrar.
It is a sad fact that some senior managers at A'Sharqiyah University abuse their powers at all levels of education and trade grades for money, favors, sex, and all sorts of fraud resulting in a very damaging situation that undermines the effectiveness of the education system in most countries of the world. It is another sad fact that many departments and colleges are being run, or are influenced, by corrupt people who, mistakenly, feel they are powerful enough to commit the crimes of forgery of students' grades without being held accountable for their actions. They either do this forgery directly and change the grades themselves or they do this indirectly and ask the teachers to change the grades through threats and intimidation. This is very detrimental to the success of the whole process of education and the delivery of quality education to our students. It is also one of the main reasons for the deterioration of the academic reputation and image of A'Sharqiyah University in Oman.
Overloaded Teachers
There is another very damaging aspect to teaching, testing, and education at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman. Most, if not all, the teachers are overloaded with teaching hours and proctoring duties. The teaching load of teachers in the Language Center and most colleges and universities ranges between 20 to 30 active teaching hours. This is practically an enormous burden of teaching leading to exhaustion, stress, depression, and even mental disorders. Then after all these very negative aspects in the teaching and learning situations, you find reckless, incompetent, and stupid senior managers place the blame on the teacher if there is a high rate of failures in tests or exams. Teachers are almost always used as scapegoats at A'Sharqiyah University.
Teachers at A'Sharqiyah University are officially required not only to teach, but also to prepare, design, and administer quizzes, tests, and exams to their students. This happens at all levels and in all colleges. This has always constituted a heavy burden on the teacher's schedule, mental health, and physical well-being This is a very counter-productive arrangement for the teachers and students. This arrangement also opens the door wide open for cheating, leaking tests and exams, bribery, fraud, and all sorts of corruption and very unreliable outputs of education.
Many teachers at A'Sharqiyah University are not qualified to prepare, design, and administer objective and reliable quizzes, tests, and exams as most of their pre-job preparations do not include sufficient training in assessment and testing.?Tests and exams belong to a highly specialized technical field separate from teaching. This is why we have full-time jobs for "testers" and "examiners" in addition to teachers.
Tests and Exams should be designed in format and content as per national, regional, and international standards and according to the educational level of students. There are criteria and standards for each level of education as determined by the educational authorities. Tests and exams made by one teacher may be far below the level (very easy) to appease the students or far above the level (very difficult) out of insufficient testing skills or done deliberately by the teachers to get revenge on the students mostly due to abuse by someone in the above line of management or some feeling of injustice done to them whether this feeling is justified or not, though in most cases, teachers are held to account when the rate of success is very low or when their students score low among the groups.
Disrespect of Specialization
Colleges and universities are higher academic institutions where the respect of academic specialization is of paramount importance. We take it for granted that most, if not all, the teachers and professors are Ph.D. holders, or at least M.A./ M.Sc. holders with ambitions to continue their higher studies for the Ph.D. The B.A./B.Sc. holders may be given temporary jobs as assistant teachers or assistant researchers but they should always be allowed to pursue their higher studies for the M.A/ M.Sc. and then the Ph.D. But in all cases, academic specialization is to be respected and fully guaranteed.
A'Sharqiyah University in Oman started in 2010 with this strategy in mind. The first Vice-Chancellor was a very well-known professor and academic from Jordan. He had a very rich experience in many respected universities and held many academic and educational positions, one of them the Minister of Education in Jordan.
A'Sharqiyah University started very well with this academic and highly respected professor and former Minister of Education. I started my career at A'Sharqiyah University as an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL and then as the Director of the Center for Language and Foundation Studies (CLFS), the Language Center and Foundation Program.
All the teachers and professors were Ph.D. and M.A/M.Sc. from reputed universities and institutions from different parts of the world with academic specializations appropriate for the academic programs of the University in both teaching and research.
But, unfortunately, a disaster happened after three years when our academic and highly respected professor was replaced by Abood Al-Sawafi who is an "intelligence officer" with no academic specialization. He claims to have a Ph.D. in Engineering but he has never taught any engineering course nor has he done any research, published or unpublished, in engineering. He spent most of his career as an office worker in the Ministry of Information in Oman and then as a failed, stupid, and incompetent manager in some private colleges in Oman.
Abood Al-Sawafi hates specializations and specialized people in a very strange way. This is a sharp indicator that this man has nothing to do with knowledge or science or the academic world; he has come directly from the jungle!
Instead of teaching language skills by specialized teachers using very relevant and attractively designed books from international publishers, Abood Al-Sawafi has decided to use only one book. He replaced the Foundation Program Syllabus approved by the Oman Ministry of Higher Education with a very weak syllabus lower than that of an intermediate school—just to make more money. He would argue that University students cannot study more than one book in the academic year. Have you ever heard such nonsense from a Vice-Chancellor of a University?!
Abood Al-Sawafi went even further. He has divided the Foundation Program students into groups and assigned two teachers for each group. These two teachers have to teach their specific group all the Foundation Program courses (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Study Skills, Grammar, etc.) even the courses that do not fall within the academic specializations of the teachers. The Program has been drastically reduced in terms of scope, hours, teaching materials, quizzes, tests, and exams. It no longer covers all the English Language skills as it used to do. This has been a real disaster for the Foundation Program at A’Sharqiyah University.
The Program was of very high quality and was effective in helping students attain the prescribed student learning outcomes in at least four areas of learning: English, Mathematics, Computing and IT, and General and Academic Study Skills. It was very popular among students and their parents and the University gained a very good academic reputation for it. Students used to refuse to move to other colleges and universities without completing the Foundation Program at the University. Then came the corrupt logger VC, Abood Al-Sawafi, and his camels’ breeder Assistant VC, Hamed Al-Hajri. They illegally canceled the Foundation Program in violation of all the legal obligations of the University towards its students and their genuine interests and in defiance of the Ministry of Higher Education and all accreditation authorities.
The first Director of the Foundation Program was a competent and qualified academic who holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from an English-speaking country. He was running the Foundation Program efficiently as per the directives of the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman. There was no forgery of grades and there was no corruption in the Language Center. Then came Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamed Al-Hajri. Instead of appreciating the hard work and the unique efforts done by the Director, his work contract was not renewed even though the University was in urgent need of his experience, expertise, and services. All this because he stood against their attempts to destroy the Foundation Program and replace it with a mere collection of elementary handouts that have nothing to do with the Program. He also stood against their forgery of students’ grades and thievery. So he had to pay the price and lose his job.
A little man with zero experience in running a language center or a foundation program was appointed as the New Director of the Language Center and Foundation Program after the position was left vacant for almost two years. As per the requirements of the job advertised by the University itself, the Director should have a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics or TESOL and should have at least five years’ experience in running a language center or a foundation program. Abood Al-Sawafi appointed the little man based on his relationship with him without any regard for the academic and experience requirements of the job. This tells us very clearly that a person appointed to a senior position without having the right credentials and leadership qualities does not care or respect academic specializations. The little man made a mess of everything in the Language Center and Foundation Program. He was unable to get on well with the teachers and students who made too many complaints against him because he was incompetent and inexperienced. After a few months, he was made to leave the University.
Abood Al-Sawafi with his "fish market" mentality and hate of academic specialization started his position as VC of A'Sharqiyah University by taking steps so incredible that no one outside of the campus would believe you when you tell them. He started by reducing all the salaries, increasing the teaching load of the teachers and professors in the different colleges and departments, and cutting off the number of books in use, especially in the Foundation Program. He replaced all educated and specialized Ph.D. holders B.A. graduates with no experience in teaching or research.
For more details, read the following article: "Corruption Models in Higher Education: Abood Al-Sawafi as a Nasty Example" (LinkedIn, June 16, 2020)
The biggest problem at A'Sharqiyah University now is that the disastrous measures taken by Abood Al-Sawafi are still in effect. To hide the true picture from the students and the public, you cannot access any information about the teachers, academics, and their specializations and what they teach on the University's website. I will come back to this point in another article.
Sexual Harassment
It is not uncommon for some teachers or managers to leak tests and exams, forge students' grades, or inflate them for many reasons, especially in return for money and favors. Tests and exams, unless strictly managed and controlled, have become a source of corruption in education and a source of trouble and conflict between the students and the teachers to the extent that some students, mistakenly, believe that some teachers are "their enemies" and they have deliberately "failed them" although it is not uncommon for a teacher or professor to fail a student for the wicked purpose of trading money or favors for grades or even "sex for grades".
Fighting sexual harassment is a necessity and a great challenge everywhere and in all sorts of organizations, especially in educational institutions where we do not find any mechanism or system to help the victims speak up without having to pay a very heavy price. Regrettably, this applies to many higher education institutions where some female students all over the world may be subjected to sexual harassment or sexual exploitation by some pervert and sick teachers and managers who trade “sex for grades”, “sex for exams” and “sex for favors” as has been the case at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman for many years. What is worse than this is the bitter fact that there are strict laws with severe punishments for anyone or any writer who dares write about sexual harassment or sexual exploitation or dares expose corrupt people whether you mention their names or not.
Top executives and line managers, in addition to some teachers, may exploit the loose situation of testing and assessment and forge students' grades whether these grades are submitted on paper or a specialized grade program.
For more details, the reader may refer to my article: "?Fighting Sexual Harassment and Corruption in Businesses and Higher Education Institutions"?published on LinkedIn on December 8, 2017.
Slaves and Mercenaries
As we have already said, many top and senior managers at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman, like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi, do not belong to the academic world in any sense and do not know how a higher education institution is to be managed. They are confessed intelligence service officers and secret police officers. They have fake degrees and are not interested in academic matters. They do not have any experience in running a university. They are appointed just to suppress the teachers and the students and do the dirty job of repression for the intelligence service in higher education in Oman.?
When you talk to them, you feel they are very superficial people who do not have any knowledge about academic programs or academic issues. They are ignorant, vulgar, rotten in mentality, and uncivilized in behavior. They are wicked in every way imaginable. They lack integrity. They are dishonest in everything they say or do. They are cheats and big liars. They deceive everyone for their gains and they tell lies all the time. They are disloyal to their country and to the organization they work for. They are loyal to the Devil and their selfish interests. They steal money from the students, the University, the Ministry of Higher Education, and even from their loyal employees. They are villains in every sense of the word.
They indulge in very unprofessional behavior of deception, cheating, and lying, especially to the University teachers, students, and members of staff. They never give correct and accurate information to the Ministry of Higher Education, the Board of Directors, or the Board of Trustees. They do not respect teachers and never honor the work contracts they have signed on behalf of the University. For them, work ethics and the qualities of honesty, fairness, and justice do not exist in their dictionaries in their lives, or in the workplaces they manage. They look down on the teachers and administrative staff and regard them as slaves and mercenaries who have joined the University just to earn some money and improve their economic conditions back at home. They do not look at the teachers as academics and educators who have full academic rights and privileges. For them, work ethics and the values of honesty, fairness, and justice do not exist in their lives or the workplace they are supposed to manage fairly. This is what has led to the demoralization of A'Sharqiyah University whose image and academic reputation have been going down the drain, all the time.
Loyalty to the Bosses
When employees sign a work contract with a company, a college, a university, or another sort of organization, they expect that their contract will be renewed based on satisfactory performance and the need for their services. They do not expect the senior managers to use the renewals of contracts as a “vicious weapon” against them and against anyone who disagrees with them or stands in their way of corruption, thievery, and fraud. They also do not expect these senior managers to renew the work contracts of bad and incompetent teachers and employees in return for sex or bribes as Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi have done for many years at A’Sharqiyah University in Oman against the genuine interests of the University and higher education in Oman. Being professionals, we take it for granted that we do not work for individuals. We work for our college university or organization in an honest and dedicated manner. Hence; our loyalty is to the organization with which we have signed the work contract. The loyalty can never be for the direct or indirect boss who may be an incompetent, reckless, and corrupt senior manager.?
On the other hand, when our work contract is not renewed for any reason, we have the right to be informed of these reasons. To ask your senior management about the reasons and they refuse to tell you, you are left in no doubt that these managers are unprofessional, inept, and cowards. They do not deserve we work with them and do not deserve any mercy from us. Our subsequent actions will be largely determined by these bitter feelings.
The renewals and non-renewals of work contracts have become a nasty weapon for corruption at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman where many corrupt and wicked senior managers like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi abuse their powers and authorization. They use the work contracts as a vicious and merciless tool to suppress anyone who stands in their way of forgery, fraud, thievery, and deception. It is a cynical tool used by cynical corrupt senior managers. This is now a very big problem at A'Sharqiyah University in Oman.
Giving too much power to senior managers is a faulty policy that can lead to blunders and inefficient management. Senior managers and other decision-makers need to be checked, observed, and supervised by independent entities and officials. They should not be given an absolute free hand to manage the businesses or institutions according to their whims, self-interests, and personal relationships.
For more details, read my article: "Renewals of Work Contracts: A Weapon for Corruption", LinkedIn, September 14, 2019.
Dishonest HR Department
The HR Department is regarded as one of the most important departments in any higher education institution or organization. They have all the information about the teachers, members of staff, and other employees.
We take it for granted that the HR Director is a qualified, skilled, and experienced professional who is prepared to work by the laws, bylaws, regulations, and the Code of Work Ethics.?He is supposed to put the genuine interests of the organization and the employees above any directive or instructions that may illegally require him to ignore these interests.
The HR officers are also expected to be qualified, skilled, and experienced. They should behave in a friendly, polite way cooperate with all employees, and protect professional or personal information related to them.
Regrettably, Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi have turned the HR Department at A’Sharqiyah University into a “wastebasket’ stuffed with people who have nothing to do with HR or the academic world. The HR Director always has communication problems. He is unable to produce one good directive or email to tell the employees what is required of them to do. He is always confused and looks at you in bewilderment like a lost fool when you visit him in his office. His experience is limited to his work in a bakery and in raising chickens on private farms.
The HR officers are unqualified, incompetent, unprofessional, and very unfriendly like their boss. One contributing factor to this bitter fact is that the HR departments in higher education in Oman have officially been “Omanized” meaning that only Omani nationals should be employed by HR departments. At A’Sharqiyah University in Oman, it has become a common practice to stuff the HR department with the most unqualified, incompetent, and stupid people you may ever find in any higher education institution anywhere in the world. They are very disorganized and repeatedly ask you for the same information. This is very tiring and irritating for anyone whose job requires him to deal with them. They always lose information and data. It is sufficient to wear a dishdasha on your body, a turban on your head, and a dagger on your belt to be an HR director or an HR officer at A’Sharqiyah University. The experience of the HR Director is restricted to a few years in a bakery or raising chickens on a private farm. The HR officers are no better than him; many of them with only some experience as taxi drivers or shop assistants selling automobile spare parts. This has always been a deliberate policy of Abood A-Sawafi and Hamed Al-Hajri: to appoint unqualified, incompetent, and stupid people in the sensitive departments of the University to fully control them and suppress any form of objection to their fraudulent practices and corruption.
Hamed Al-Hajri has also controlled the HR Department at A’Sharqiyah University and has turned the HR officers into slaves and robots who blindly follow his orders even if they violate the laws, bylaws, and regulations of the University. They indulge in very unprofessional behavior of deception, cheating, and lying. They never give correct and accurate information and often fabricate reports against the teachers and employees at the request of Hamed Al-Hajri who is very wicked and a real villain seeking to eliminate anyone who dares to stand in his way of deception, thievery, and corruption.
When Abood Al-Sawafi made his notorious blunders of destroying the Foundation Program and refusing to renew the work contract of the Director of the Language Center and Foundation Program at A’Sharqiyah University, Hamed Al-Hajri exploited these blunders and ordered the HR to leak insulting information to the Language Center teachers to spread rumors about the Director; though the Director was a senior officer at the University.?This wicked policy of leaking information with the aim of humiliating anyone who disagrees with Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamed Al-Hajri is one of the scandalous practices that you will never find in any other higher education institution in the world. This has greatly tarnished the reputation of the University and is a real stain on its image. The HR qualities of honesty, fairness, justice, and the commitment to serve the genuine interests of the University do not mean anything to the HR department of A’Sharqiyah University. They behave like slaves and puppets to serve the corruption and self-interests of some senior managers who act like “mafia bosses” rather than honest senior managers in a university.
?Shortages of Staff
There have been acute shortages of qualified academics, teachers, and professors at A'Sharqiyah University due to the low salaries, bad packages, toxic work environment, corruption, and the fish mentality of some senior managers in charge of recruitment. Let us take the CLFS (Center for Language and Foundation Studies) as an example. This Center is in charge of teaching the General Foundation Program (GFP) to all newly registered students of the University. The Program consists of four components: English, Math, IT (Information Technology), and Study Skills. We have designed the Program by national and international standards and in line with the instructions of the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman. We arranged for the purchase of excellent international textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and teaching materials from some reputed international publishers: Oxford, Cambridge, Longman, Pearson, and others. We also recruited qualified and certified native English teachers from all over the world as per the Recruitment Policies of the University which stipulate that the teachers of the English Component should be native English speakers. Some non-native English teachers were also recruited to fill the shortage, but they are highly qualified and competent. The Director was a very qualified, competent, and experienced professor with valuable experience in managing and running Foundation programs and English departments for many, many years. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from a UK university. The teaching and management of the Program went on very smoothly and effectively for almost five years and was one of the most successful foundation programs in Oman.
The Language Center is also in charge of three English Language courses for the College students. These courses are English Communication 1, English Communication 2, and English for Engineering Students (known as Technical Writing and Presentation). These courses require a very high level of proficiency in English and are to be taught by qualified native English speakers or by Ph.D. holders as per the directives and regulations of the Ministry of Higher Education. We followed these directives and regulations and the courses were taught efficiently and up to the standards.
This was some years ago. Look at the picture now we do not want to ask you to go beyond the Website of A’Sharqiyah University and, in particular, the section of the Website concerning the CLFS (Language Center) if you can get access to it because the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees have turned the University into a "secret intelligence agency" which is not open to the public and the outside world unlike the respected universities to hide the bitter truth about its miserable situation. What do we see on the CLFS Staff Directory? The Director is now a B.A. holder, not a Ph.D. from an English-speaking university. This is a gross violation of the standards and the Ministry’s regulations for appointing the managing directors of the foundation programs at Omani universities. There are hardly now any native speakers of English teaching in the Language Center. The most we find is an Australian teacher who is mentally disturbed and whose teaching experience, by his admission and CV, is limited to the teaching of kids in kindergartens and primary schools! Being the Director for many years, I used to warn him of his awkward teaching style: he used to hold the book and read to the students as if he was reading a fairy tale to kindergarten kids! There is no other English native speaker. Who is teaching the English language courses for college students in their original design and structure? No one. The reason is that Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and those who are in charge of recruitment now have ordered the little novice "Director" and the HR to downgrade these courses to the teaching of very simplified courses with no academic value.
Go to the colleges and look into the academic profiles of the teachers and professors and see how many of them have Ph. D.s from recognized, respected universities and institutions and how many are happy and can do their academic and educational duties without fear and repression from the top management.
The list of problems at A'Sharqiyah University is endless. This is a real tragedy in higher education anywhere in the world.
Root Causes
There are many root causes for the mounting problems at A'Sharqiyah University and other Higher Education Institutions in Oman and elsewhere. For shortage of space and time, I will deal with these root causes in another article.
Implications for Management and Justice
The best approach to management in companies, organizations, and institutions, especially higher education institutions is the humanist approach which puts people before buildings and the genuine interests of the teachers, students, employees, and customers before making profits.
The successful leaders and managers are those who deal with all work problems in a humanistic professional way and solve problems according to the regulations and guidelines, not according to their narrow self-interests. This applies to all sorts of problems that affect work and production. They should abandon their ivory towers and cozy offices and throw all the problems on the teachers, the employees, the students, and the customers.
We take it for granted that companies, businesses, educational institutions, and other entities need to have effective problem-solving strategies and problem-solving procedures in place to ensure quick solutions to problems and to handle all sorts of obstacles that may hinder the smooth operations of the organization and may even threaten its existence. To ignore problems and obstacles and hide them from the higher managerial bodies and authorities is a very ineffective and stupid policy.
Teachers and employees are to be the priority in the workplace. They should not be subjected to blackmail and smear campaigns by corrupt, incompetent, and inefficient managers like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi who always threaten their teachers of revenge and blackmail if they leave A'Sharqiyah University and move to another university or institutions. Teachers and employees have not been created as slaves by Allah for corrupt and inhumane managers like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi who always use threats and intimidation against the teachers and employees even after they leave the University. This is very detrimental to justice and the basic concepts and principles of human rights as determined by the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
It is very difficult to fully comprehend the logic behind the current practices of the top managers and some line managers at A'Sharqiyah University who ignore the problems of the teachers and employees and use threats and intimidation in the workplace. We do not see any role for these mafia tactics in any modern university or organization. They are not more than outdated tools for slavery and exploitation belonging to the Middle Ages! Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi should be ashamed of themselves.
Conclusions
Higher education is one of the most important public priorities for any modern-day nation. It is regarded as the guardian of national culture the main factor in economic growth and an indispensable engine for the realization of the public and individual aspirations. It cannot be left for greedy, incompetent, and vulgar managers like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi to make arbitrary decisions and messy plans for the sole purpose of torturing those who stand in their way of corruption, and fraud, forgery of grades, and thievery.
With the recognition that financial and human resources are always limited, there needs to be a comprehensive revision of the existing colleges and universities to determine which of these colleges and universities are to continue in operation and which need to be closed down if they are not academically, economically and socially viable and sustainable. As the Ministry of Higher Education makes decisions, from time to time, prohibiting Omani students from studying in some higher education institutions outside Oman to avoid fake institutions and maintain quality education, the same should apply to the institutions inside the Sultanate. It is unreasonable, uneconomical, and immoral that a higher education provider like A’Sharqiyah University is allowed to operate and receive millions and millions of dollars as grants from the Ministry every year but it practices disinformation and deception on a large scale and does not qualify to be a university in any sense of the word.
Teachers, students, and their parents have been writing and complaining to everybody: to the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Director-General of the Private Colleges and Universities, and all other relevant educational and accreditation authorities about the mounting problems at A'Sharqiyah University but nobody takes the trouble to reply or investigate and nobody cares. Everything, including the future of students, is for sale in return for a fistful of dollars! Incompetent and corrupt managers like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi are being covered up and promoted by the corrupt and inefficient Board of Directors and Board of Trustees of A'Sharqiyah University while the officials of the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman are completely silent and behave like spectators. They do nothing to rectify the situation due to their complacency and corruption.
Everybody knows the situation very well but does nothing to help solve it. The governments, the officials, and all the bottom and top decision-makers understand the problem, but keep silent or resort to hypocrisy and irresponsible excuses to justify a very damaging educational situation.
When employees are unfairly treated or their rights are taken away,?they would do a great deal of harm to the company or institution. They can damage the reputation and spoil the image of the organization in different ways; sometimes beyond repairs. This may even lead to the disappearance of the organization itself. The best approach for managing people in businesses and organizations is, therefore, to be fair, objective, and consistent following the codes of work ethics, moral values, and international standards of management practice. Only bad, stupid, incompetent, reckless senior managers like Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, and Mohammed Al-Barashdi who care only about themselves and their interests do not recognize this fact.
A'Sharqiyah University in Oman is completely demoralized nowadays because of bad management, corruption, fraud, forgery of grades, abuse of power, injustices, and unprofessional conduct. It is being led by very bad managers most of whom are incompetent, stupid, unqualified, and corrupt down to their nails. They take pleasure in torturing their teachers, students, and employees by throwing all sorts of problems at them.
?References
1.????? Sarathy, Vasanth (2018). "Real World Problem-Solving" Front. Hum. Neuroscience, Sec. Cognitive Neuroscience, Volume 12, 26 June 2018
2.????? Dunbar, Kevin (2017). "Problem solving", Chapter 20. ?A Companion to Cognitive Science. (Wiley Online Library)
3.????? Shannon L Stewart?,?Angela Celebre?,?John P Hirdes,?Jeffrey W Poss (2020). Risk of Suicide and Self-harm in Kids: The Development of an Algorithm to Identify High-Risk Individuals Within the Children's Mental Health System, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information
4.????? Rosenbusch, H., Soldner, F., Evans, A. M., & Zeelenberg, M. (2021). Supervised machine learning methods in psychology: A practical introduction with annotated R code.?Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 15(2), Article e12579. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell
5.????? Mishra S.?(2014). "Decision-Making Under Risk: Integrating Perspectives from Biology, Economics, and Psychology", Personal, Social, Psychological Review. 2014;18(3):280-307.
6.????? Myers, David G. (2010). Social Psychology (Tenth ed.). New York: McGraw Hill, p.94
7.????? Pearl, Judea?(1983).?Heuristics: Intelligent Search Strategies for Computer Problem Solving. New York: Addison-Wesley.
8.????? ?Emiliano, Ippoliti (2015).?Heuristic Reasoning: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics. Switzerland: Springer
9.????? Sunstein, Cass (2005). "Moral Heuristics". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Volume?28, Issue 4, 531- 542
10.? Gigerenzer, Gerd (1991).?"How to Make Cognitive Illusions Disappear: Beyond 'Heuristics and Biases'"?European Review of Social Psychology?Volume 2, 1991 -?Issue 1, 83-115. Published online: 04 Mar 2011, Taylor & Francis Online
11.? Pólya, George?(1945)?How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
12.? Csikszentmihalyi M, Sawyer K. (2015).?"Creative Insight: The Social Dimension of a Solitary Moment".?In:?The Systems Model of Creativity: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 2015:73-98. New York: Springer
13.? Kounios, J. and Beeman, M. (2014). "The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight", Annual Review Psychology, Issue 65:71-93
14.? Training Express: "7 Key Steps to Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills", 100 Bishopsgate, London, Business Team Training
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