Job Discussion Forums

[Vanica]

Has anyone worked at this school? I would appreciate any comments, including those about the city of Jeddah.
Thanks.

[Formysins]

I've attended seminars there.

It's on a beautiful, new, but small, campus, consisting of maybe eight well-designed and equipped buildings. As I recall, these include a theater, a gymnasium, and an indoor swimming pool.

During school hours, everyone on the campus is female, so that it's not necessary to wear the abaya and scarf required in public places where genders mix.

I have heard, though, from an American instructor there, that there is a problem with student motivation. Most of the students, most female Saudi students in Saudi Arabia, in fact, are poorly motivated because their job prospects are extremely limited. They may be able to get jobs as teachers, or clerical jobs in hospitals. There are very few other job opportunities for women.

In English language classrooms, at least, students chat, apply cosmetics, and interfere with effective instruction of the few students who are ambitious and academically oriented.

I, myself, teach 11th and 12th grade at an expensive Saudi high school, where the problem is similar, but not quite as severe, as the administration has some limited interest in discipline. Still, maybe a third of the students chat or sleep in class. As teachers are required to give them marks that will gratify their parents, the girls have little extrinsic motivation to study, or even to cooperate. About a third of the time, I feel more like a police officer than a teacher.

(Had a great day yesterday though. My best class was reading an article about an endangered species, and actually caught the unstated moral issue, whether it is morally acceptable to expend effort, expertise, and money on rescuing a little-known endangered species, when the local population is living in desperate poverty.)

Possible leisure time activities include diving (maybe the best coral reefs in the world), horseback riding, and camping in the desert. There are excellent modern exercise clubs, such as Gold's Gym. There are great places to shop for clothes, electronics, and gold.

Also, there is no income tax and no sales tax.

Jeddah is a nice place to live, by the way, although the initial adjustment to life in a country where women can't drive, public entertainment is limited to soccer games, which women are not permitted to attend, and public libraries are small and inaccessible, can be rocky. On the other hand, I have a part-time driver, a live-in maid, and a gardener, and wonderful friends of three faiths and a dozen nationalities. Living here has enriched my life, and widened my world view, immensely.

One more thing: if you have children, make sure the contract includes private school tuition, at least SR 50,000 per child, so that you can put them into one of the three excellent British or American schools, or be prepared to home study. Non-Saudis are excluded from Saudi public schools, and education is not mandatory.

[Cleopatra]

[bje]

[SCHUBERT]

[Cleopatra]

[Stephen Jones]

SR50,000 is what the good schools are probably charging. In general though if you teach in a school you send your kids to the same school.

Education is a little different from the maid and the villa. It is often make or break. After all if you are getting the kids educated for free at home you are not going to take a job where you have to lose a fair chunk of your salary to get the equivalent education.

[bje]

[Vanica]

[Vanica]

On another note, could I ask you about the climate in Jeddah. Until last month when I travelled to North Carolina, I had no idea I was allergic to mould, which grows abundantly in the American Southeast due to the humid climate. Are there similar problems in Jeddah?

[Cleopatra]

[ALPH]

the .. er .. weather, Vanica. You'll notice that some posters here just ramble off the point for the apparent hell of it. This can happen if you've spent for too long in the kingdom and are in need of professional attention. Try not let this happen to you.

Jeddah has a tropical climate � mild in winter and hot and very humid in summer. Summer lasts 8 to 10 months, with temperatures moderating in November. The Climate is generally humid reaching 98% sometimes. Average temperatures are 23o C in January and 32o C in July. Relief from the heat often comes at sunset when sea breezes arrive. Except on the few occasions when it rains, the sun shines daily. Winter is comparable to the spring and summer seasons of resorts on the Mediterranean Sea.

As for Mould - generally keeping the home dry / repairing any leaks immediately and running a dehumidifier / air-purifier shoud keep that nasty mould away. Hope this goes someway in answering your query

[bje]

[Cleopatra]

[ALPH]

yep, Vanica - clear examples here of the 'mould taking hold'. Better pack that humidifier after all. We don't want you catching whatever it is this lot are sporting .. Yikes !