Job Discussion Forums

[joleen7]

Hi guys- can anyone who works in a college or university in Oman please tell me about the working climate please? Are you treated like professional adults ? And how many teaching hours do you have, what are the true class sizes, and are the students pleasant? Do they learn ?
Thanks!

[MuscatGary]

[joleen7]

thanks MuscatGary- sounds like most of the Middle East
I pm'd you

[Whatever will be]

Teaching hours are set at 20 per week but there are endless additional hours such as Writing Center & IT Lab duty, Library & Photocopying Center duty, record keeping of attendance and entering of sick leave certificates (online), participation in clubs and competitions, Academic Advising which is an euphemism for extra tutoring, compulsory workshops and other professional development, frequently re-occurring invigilation and marking of exams, filling out of numerous surveys, and a whole lot of other time consuming task, which brings the average weekly workload to 50 hours or more.

Students do learn: how to beat the system/ evade the teacher and how to collect their "salary" with as little effort as possible, which is part of their preparation for future jobs.

Students are generally pleasant but become quickly argumentative and even hostile over lateness, lack of attendance, forgetting of books and other learning materials, low marks, undone homework, texting and chatting during class, cheating in exams, drinking and eating in class, etc. Any teacher enforcing proper conduct will be penalized by students via a low/bad evaluation, which puts the teacher's job in jeopardy.

Class sizes are between 25 and 29 students.

School holidays are at most 8 weeks compared to the 12 weeks "back home". On top of it, public holidays are as scares as hen's teeth.

Office hours are officially from 8 AM to 3 PM but late shift (usually at least 2 nights per week) runs until 7 PM; early shift means being there at 7:30 AM. Seat warming is required, even when the students are on holidays.

The salary is good to very good, depending on the exchange rate.

Overall, Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan are perhaps the better deal IMHO.

[balqis]

In other words, you have to know how to play The Great Game, as it was once called. In this regard, nothing has changed. And you have to know how to move around the Arab hall of mirrors, with all illusion it carries. You must find your way about such illusory reality. A very interesting and difficult exercise in estranged ontology indeed, one where many Westerners fail to pass.
Nevertheless, and despite all you will witness there, you may still love/fall in love with/ the Arab World, then tough luck.

balqis

[MuscatGary]

Very few of my students arrived to class with pen and paper but then again why would they? They would never take notes anyway.

[madrileno]

[Tazz]

Most of the bearded bedouin boys at the MOM interior colleges arrive with neither the books or pens and certainly not paper.....since the books are 2nd or 3rd hand-the exercises have already been completed I guess that in their minds the books are finished and there's no need to bring them! Participation in the 'prefab' classrooms consists of sitting at the back banging against the walls......waiting for the hours to pass so they can leave.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

I'm not sure what to say to some of the comments written here, except that people's experiences can clearly vary. I work for a 'Hawthorne recruited institution' in Salalah and, IMHO, it's a pretty sweet gig. Teaching hours, at least at the moment, are nowhere near 20 hours a week. There is a professional development session every week and you are expected to be on campus between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m, but that's pretty much it. All in all, it's a good atmosphere and I certainly don't feel like they are wringing every last drop of sweat out of me, but, as to what its like at other places, I'm not really in a position to comment.

In regards to the students, yeah, well, that has been one of the hardest things for me to adjust to after having taught for years in Vietnam, where there is a Confucian culture and the people have a strong work ethic. I've found the students here to be friendly and nice, but, to put it extremely mildly, I haven't been blown away by their unstoppable dedication to their studies. Geez, if they spent as much effort in their studies as they do in scheming and plotting on ways in which to get out of class they would probably have a better grip on the English language than David Crystal . I guess that's just the Gulf for you, and, like a lot of things in Arabia, I've heard it's much worse in Saudi. The teachers I work with who are KSA veterans say that the students here are dynamic and enthusiastic scholars in comparison .

[MuscatGary]

Hi Sgt., Salalah is the best of the six CAS gigs that Hawthorn offer and has had good management under Frank, I'm not sure if he's still there. The other five are nowhere near as good and some of the HOD's are useless, or worse.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

Hi MuscatGary. Frank is still here, but he stepped aside as HOD a while ago and the new Head is a lady called Jude (not sure if you know her). Anyway, like I said, I can only really comment on what I know and my own experiences have been confined to Salalah and, so far, it has been a really good place to work. As to what it is like working at other CAS centers, beats me .

[balqis]

[MuscatGary]