Job Discussion Forums

[Vanica]

I am interested in seeking an ESL job in Rabat, with my four year old daughter (French first language). I have an M.Ed. TESOL, certification in French-English-Spanish translation and interpretation, 10 years experience. Does anyone have any thoughts, recommendations?

[veiledsentiments]

Hi again Vanica...

I notice that there are someother threads on Rabat and Morocco in general, so be sure to do a search to see various job possibilities...

VS
(PS: I noted that on one of the threads they warned against single women in Morocco... just wanted to add that I traveled all around for a month on my own one summer with little or no problem... using common sense, of course. )

[Vanica]

Hi VS, nice to see you here. I read all the posts that refer to Rabat, as there are only 3 or 4 pages for all of Africa (I heard that there was a recent purge of older posts). Anyhow I guess I was getting at the single mother aspect, from someone living and working there.
I only see two schools mentioned, Amideast and ALC, so it might be very competitive there.

[Africaexpert]

I taught at the ALC. I had a full-time housekeeper/babysitter/cook. I saved money. What's the question?

[medina]

Before picking up and moving to Rabat, you should remember that whether you find a job at Amideast or the American Center or the British Council, you're going to be teaching nights, until pretty late, in fact. That's the reality of TEFL in Morocco--- most of it happens in night classes. So you need to ask yourself who you want to trust with putting your little girl to bed just about every week night and staying with her until ten pm or so.

Africaxpert says she had a maid/babysitter/cook and maybe she got lucky, but entrusting your child into some else's hands is a huge step no matter where you are. And here, where a lot of the women who work as maids for the kind of money an English teacher can pay are not educated in Arabic, let alone French, it can even be risky. Yes, most people here love children, and that's great, but a sitter needs to be able to deal with emergencies, maybe read labels, think about what could be dangers to children in advance....stuff like that.

Then there's the question of schooling. There are lots of private schools in Morocco, but not many good ones. All of them at your daughter's grade would be French and Arabic unless you sent her to the French Mission school. But then you're talking about some serious cash.

Sorry to sound so negative, but I've been through this kind of thing and it's not getting any easier here.

[Vanica]

Thank you so much for writing, Medina. I know exactly what you mean about childcare, and that's exactly what I was asking about. We have lived in Montreal for three years, and for the first two years I was completely without a babysitter as I never found anyone I could trust except one very nice young woman who was never available because she was so sought after. A lot of people assume it is easy to arrange childcare, but it certainly is not.
The French language aspect is a plus, however, because my child only speaks French. Working nights, on the other hand, would be a major problem.
Thanks again for the honest advice.

[Africaexpert]

On the other hand, you do work split shifts so you have time during the day with your kid. Another mode of education teachers working with me used for their kids was a basic home-school program.