Job Discussion Forums

[bookishbloke]

I've been offered a job with this outfit, but I'm wondering whether to accept it given some of the negative comments posted on this forum earlier. These suggested that the quality of the accommodation available in the mess wasn't up to scratch and that there was a high staff turnover. Has anyone got any more recent info ? What's it like in terms of teaching? Thanks

[Neil McBeath]

The accommodation varies. If you are lucky, then you could be given a Junior Officer's Quarter with en suite facilities where the furniture does not have cigarette burns in it, where the carpets are not stained, and where the en suite is not festooned with corroding pipes, where the shower has a rose and the washbasin still has a plug.

If you are not lucky, then all of the above might be true.

In either case you will have access to the facilities of the Officers' Mess, but obviously you will be expected to pay your individual Mess Bill for such food and drink that you consume.

Yes, there is a high turnover. I refused to renew contract four years ago, and have subsequently returned to Oman. I have honestly lost count of the number of people who have left in the last four years, but the figure is certainly very high. I believe that the last person to walk out left in June.

For materials, do a Google search for my name, and read the article on materials that is on developingteachers.com

[Yorks Lad]

The terms and conditions for RAFO are very good. Some of the teaching is very amateurish, which makes it frustrating if you're a serious teacher.
It seems from friends who still work there that they are now refusing to renew contracts from some of the very poor teachers.

The quality of accommodation isn't great, but many people find their own flat off base in time, though of course you have to pay for that out of your earnings.

[Neil McBeath]

Yorks Lad,

Your friends may be misinformed, or may be putting their own interpretation on events.

I've just returned to Oman and have done some calculations.

It would appear that in the last four years, something like 20 people have left RAFO employ. That may not sound like many, but in fact it accounts for about a third of the expatriate teaching force.

One person left on health grounds. Two left because they reached 65 and had to retire. Four, maybe five, were told that their services were no longer required, but of that number, two subsequently moved into positions in tertiary education in Oman, where they are still working - so they could not have been THAT bad.

Every other person either resigned, walked out without bothering to resign, or refused to renew contract. (Refusing to renew contract, incidentally, is the most intelligent course of action because that way the employee receives a terminal bonus, airfare home and assistance with shipping.)

One final point. To qualify for the level of accommodation that I have received from SQU, I would have had to be either a Wing Commander or Group Captain in RAFO.

[Yorks Lad]

Neil,

I do think it's you that is "putting their own interpretation on events", as you put it.

"Refusing to renew contracts" is a very melodramatic way of saying someone completed a contract and then moved elsewhere. It's very common in EFL where many people want to see as many different countries as possible. I know at least one person who left RAFO only to return a couple of years later.

The quality of accommodation at RAFO is basic, I admit. Overall, however, most people seem happy with the overall balance between working conditions and frustrations on the one hand and the rewards (in terms of a substantial salary and three return flights a year) on the other.

[Neil McBeath]

OK, Yorks Lad, have it your own way.

I lived at RAFO Lansab, RAFO Salalah and RAFO Masirah, and I taught at RAFO Ghallah, RAFO Seeb, RAFO Salalah and RAFO Masirah - but you obviously know far more than I do about the conditions.

I, too, know of a man who left RAFO and then returned. He was a blustering bully; assiduously ensuring that he got out of the classroom and stayed out for as long as he could. At the end of his first tour he was "Omanised" - in other words, RAFO realised that he was offering nothing they could not provide themselves.

On his second tour he cried up his expertise as a computer nerd, turning timetabling into an arcane mystery, but came unstuck on materials production. The result has been a two year rewriting project.

Two further points. Firstly, the salary is NOT that substantial. In 1981 it was absolutely excellent. It was three times what I had been making in British Further Education. Precisely because of that, jobs in RAFO were at a premium. People came and stayed. Since then, the salary has slipped to below what a newly qualified primary teacher would make in London. The difference is that there is no income tax.

Secondly, the three tickets a year are worth some 1200 rials. If, as you admit, some people (like those who are married and want to live with their wives) choose to live out, it will cost them 300 rials A MONTH to rent a flat. 3600 rials a year is a considerable deduction from any salary, and will be particularly unwelcome if an employee has to been led to expect adequate facilities.

[Yorks Lad]

Well, I've obviously touched a raw nerve there.

I was merely speaking about my own experiences and those of friends I have who are still working for RAFO.

By your own statistics, the majority of people whose two years contracts have come up over the past few years have chosen to renew.

As I said, most people working there seem happy with the work/salary balance. I heard people complain (quite justifiably) about poor organisation at times, but I never heard anyone complain about the salary. Indeed, I had several friends working in other places in Oman who earned much less than RAFO teachers did.

As for comparing the salary to that of a school teacher in the UK, have you any idea how much harder it is teaching mainstream in the UK? (I used to, and there is no comparison between that and teaching at RAFO or indeed in any other EFL job I've come across).

RAFO requires a TEFL certificate and two years' experience. There are not many places either in Oman or elsewhere that pay such reasonable salaries on that basis. Of course you might be able to earn more with an MA elsewhere, but RAFO don't demand that.

I don't claim to know more about RAFO than you do. But I don't have an axe to grind either.

[Neil McBeath]

You don't have an axe to grind? Really??

You have posted four times. Three of those posts have been in support of a job that you yourself seem to have left, but where some anonymous "friends" are still working.

Those same "friends" would also tell you that they are not on two-