Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

The labour market is not the same for males and females in Saudi Arabia. For females, education, and that means teaching in the classroom, is one of the few options. In contrast, a Saudi male who has English good enough to teach it, can do much better in a non-teaching post. Most of these jobs are not open to women.

Saudi males generally would prefer not to teach and that leaves these jobs for foreigners, like myself My own feeling is that they generally do not like the aspect of service that is attached to pedagogy !

The Lord is gracious !

Asda · Joined: 01 Jun 2008 Posts: 231

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Yes, Omanis are the exception to so many of the Gulf stereotypes. There is a lot to say for having only a little oil. While it has built them a wonderful infrastructure over the last 40 years, most Omanis know that they will still need to make a living... and that means work. Fortunately they are not above driving a taxi or even bagging your food in the supermarket. It is a breath of fresh air.

That said, a male Omani with good English will normally not want to be in education. Not enough pay or prestige... rather similar to our home countries for most of us. Laughing

It seems to me that Saudi does have enough variation in wealth that it should be more like Oman than it is... but the cultures are quite different... books have been written that theorize on the whys - much too broad a topic for this board. Cool

VS

Linguist · Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 202

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

If you are not hired directly, you are being hired by a middleman, ie a contractor. What is in it for them ? Simple. They maximise their income by minimising yours.

realtimerrr · Joined: 29 Dec 2009 Posts: 3

Watch out for Bell Educational Trust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Told me I had contract and to go out and incur over $2000 in physical examination and visa expenses, proceeded to mess up my visa application royally - in part through honest but staggering mistakes -and then refused to compensate me even partially for my expenses. They also promised me I would be teaching about 25 hours per week, but the contract I received said normal working hours will not regularly exceed 48 hours per week!!!!!!!!!! Bell also said that I would be officially employed by a Saudi company but refused to give me any contact information for them so that that company is completely in the dark as to Bell's incompetence and dishonesty. Bell kept stressing I had to be ready to go ASAP, to have my bags packed and to be ready to depart at any moment, so I canceled my Thanksgiviing and Christmas plans. Also drove 1100 miles round trip to Miami to get an expedited passport and 1200 miles round trip to DC to walk my visa through by hand - only to find out that Bell had dropped the ball completely and later some heated words canceled my contract. AVOID BELL LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7168Riyadh · Joined: 19 Jan 2009 Posts: 149

desultude · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 614

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I wasn't all that clear in my comment about the men. I have worked with a number of male Omanis in administration at universities and they were all professional and certainly as competent as any Western administrators. What I really meant was in the classroom... not many want to become English teachers. Crying or Very sad

VS

desultude · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 614

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

.....that may be related to what actually happens at Gulf universities. My impression is that increasingly universities in the region are doing what should be done in secondary school !

Students often arrive for their initial studies through the medium of English with a very low level of study skills.

Much of the work done at Prep Year in University is Elementary or lower Intermediate English, combined with basic study skills. ("Why do you come to class with no book and no pen ?")

Cleopatra · Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:36 pm Post subject:

zippy2k · Joined: 07 Sep 2005 Posts: 42 Location: Riyadh

I am working on the Obeikan project at KSU Riyadh. Now into my second month. There is much to put up with - no photocopiers for over a week now; no teachers books or workbooks for certain levels (none for my level since I started) and yes, many students don't bother their arses to even bring a pen or piece of paper to class. I only post these points having already raised them with management (and not been satisfied). That said however, the students are better than I thought they'd be - they are much the same as adolescents I've taught in other parts of the world. The good ones for me more than outweigh the bad ones and the same principles apply re: classroom management.

To be fair the management are under a lot of pressure on a huge project like this simply from the number of teachers they are trying to manage. KSU also calls the shots, eg. recently teachers were "volunteered" to manually remark the mid-semester exams because some students weren't happy with the marks they'd been given. Things like that lower morale and cause bad feeling amongst teachers. Then today we were told to give the students their exams back (in the middle of class with no warning) to mark themselves and raise any queries they had!

I have been paid bang on time, the correct amount by paymasters who were meticulous about ensuring everything was in order. I cannot complain about that.

The accommodation is actually quite good in the "grace month" with the advantage you're with other new teachers in the same boat. It was a great place to be introduced to the KSA. But you have to ask for stuff you might need in your room. It is not as hard as some posters seem to make out finding a furnished room in Riyadh - I found a good twin bedroom in a fully furnished serviced flat with 3 bedrooms which costs me 1267SAR/mth(split between 3 ppl), 8 days after arriving well within my allowance and there are literally dozens of such blocks in my vicinity. Of course you do have to share and that's taking a risk for most ppl. I am also making money on my travel allowance sharing a taxi and improving my Arabic by living on "civvie st". The waiting lists for compounds are huge and there's the cost so nobody I know on the project lives on one. We all have friends from at least one compound so can access its restaurants, pools, etc almost when we want.

There is plenty about life on the project to make you quite depressed but there's no need to be.

KSA may not be for everyone but I think the KSU project can be a good introduction to Saudi life and university TEFL.

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:28 pm Post subject:

It's good to hear someone with a balanced viewpoint, especially on a start-up program. Most people can't handle the vicissitudes of a start-up, but it sounds like you are off to a great start.

Citizenkane · Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 234 Location: Xanadu

KSU is not so bad, all things considered.

Yes, making men look for their own flats was a nasty move, and the 11 month salary thing is also dodgy. but you can make a fair bit of extra cash through voluntary overtime if you wish, and it's not exactly the most stressful work environment. You could definitely do worse.