Job Discussion Forums

[meggiebea]

Yes, updates please..... I've heard lots of good things and bad things about ENS.

[veralynn]

I don't have any 'hard' info but did hear that things were improving....

[veiledsentiments]

Well... that could mean that it has moved up from "run screaming to the airport in dark of night" to "drive casually to the airport" when you escape.

If I had decent credentials and experience, I wouldn't consider a job there until we had a track record here of good news.

VS

[veralynn]

Yes I agree VS. An improvement is good, obviously, but in no way should it be taken that I am recommending them as top employers!!

[Ergo Sum]

The problem in ENS lies with the Board and Rudaina. Until both are changed, there's no hope of improvement.

[hihowareya]

Unfortunately ANOTHER principal has been fired from ENS for trying to improve the school. Even with our new western director, it seems you can't teach an old school new tricks!

[BrownSauce]

I too have heard that it's a place to really avoid.

So, avoid it!

[foreign07work]

For years the word has been "Avoid this school like the plague," due to the chairman of the school board's comment: "Teachers are like a bag of onions, when one leaves, we just reach into the bag and pull out another one." Basically that's still the way it is. Some teachers are able to survive long enough to escape with their end of service benefits (I did, hamdullah, and used it for a down payment on a house) but others are harassed, threatened, moved to different subjects and diferent levels. The students do what they want and if the discipline coordinators try to follow the policy and suspend a student, the school board just over-rides them.
It's a sad and somewhat dangerous scene. It's very difficult to stay off of admin's rader and out of their cross-hairs. Woe be unto those who dare to make a suggestion or offer a tip about how things might be better. Admin gets very defensive toward teachers who make any noise that even remotely sounds like a complaint. Their standard response is, "If you don't like it LEAVE!" Better to just not go in the first place. After M Naser left, some thought that conditions might improve, but no, it's obvious that Chairman of the Board Dr. Jamal (who has been "dying of cancer" now for about 8 years) runs the profit-making facade. As long as there are desperate teachers (lately from S. Africa) there will be plenty of onions to help the posers there make it from September until June.

(MOD edit for names)

[hurricane]

Wasn't it Dr. J. who brought down the MLI? Not at all a good track record for this "gentleman".

[veiledsentiments]

I thought that what brought down MLI was the decision of the military that they could do it all by themselves and didn't need AMIDEAST. Once they left, it went totally down the toilet in about two years.

Perhaps this fellow just pounded in the final nails...

VS

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

This is to confirm what VS wrote. Julius Erving had nothing to do with the demise of the MLI. That would be the infamous Dr. Incompetence and Dr. Gosh! That looks easy...we can do that!

NCTBA

[Firefly28]

I'm sorry, but I just have to set the record straight and share some of the information from the ISR website, which unfortunately, is not available for all to see as there is a membership fee associated with access. These are just a few of the comments - literally the tip of the iceberg. And many of them repeat. Have some sense and stay away!

These comment range in date from 2002 to present. Nothing has changed. In fact, it seems as though things have worsened. Here are a few examples:

1. "Head of admin., Mr Jamal called, a meeting earlier this year to find out why staff were leaving. At this meeting he referred to staff as 'onions' Something that could be bought at any market. He said the reason we were working in international schools was because our own countries wouldn't have us. This lack of respect is a constant - --not openly, but you feel it in any dealings."
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2. "Different people from the President�s office have come several times and have asked the staff what the problems are in the school and we have been asked to fill out questionnaires. The answers are always the same and nothing is ever done. The school continues to run itself painfully into the ground. Parents were invited to a meeting with the Chairman and no action was taken on their recommendations (many of their recommendations were the same as the teachers). Things continue to run along their dismal path of destruction. Hmmm. . . teachers and parents know nothing about what is happening in the school while a man and his uneducated spies know everything! Recently, parents had yet another meeting with the Chairman to raise concerns they had about the school and they were told to their horror, shock and dismay to just get out! Can you believe it?

The parents of Emirates National School have had enough and are pulling their children out of the school at unheard of numbers. Other schools are reporting that sometimes 50 or 60 children are applying to their schools from ENS in one day! Sadly, there are many parents who still want their children in the school because they do not know what is happening in the school. Sadly, the four principals take the Chairman�s abuse every day and in so many degrading and unprofessional ways. Some of the principals even pass this anger and degradation on to teachers. The principals are in a political tug-of-war all their own. Two principals are trained educators and truly care about teachers and children and try to work within the framework to do whatever they can for the benefit of their charges. Sadly they have been asked to collect their belongings and are finished before the school year had a chance to finish."
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3. "Teachers who are not returning to the school will have their classrooms examined and 2000 dirhams (about $550 U.S.) of their salary will be kept back. Any damage will be charged to the teacher. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Especially when this �World Class School� cannot even paint the classrooms every summer!"
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4. "Computers are dealt with by the technology dept headed by Sujith (Mod edit). Request followed by request will not see anything fixed. There are supposed to be one computer lab per campus but there were constant problems. All three computer teachers left before the end of the year.

Specialist teachers are asked to work across campuses with no travel time. Classes are left unattended, waiting for a teacher to catch a bus from one campus to another. Little attention is paid to teachers who have to travel and work across campuses."
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5. "SHAME!!! on Emirates National School for being the DISGRACEFUL INSTITUTION that it is!!!

You've read it all:

- the bullying of staff
- the threats
- the punishments
- the penalties
- the degrading comments
- the laughable 'teacher rules book' (oh, sorry, I meant 'staff handbook')
- the lies
- the deceit
- the rock-bottom teacher morale
- the constant, year-round conveyor belt of teachers
- the unjust dismissals (MANY)
- teachers packing up and leaving in the night
- teachers being forced to teach (not just substitute in) subjects they know nothing about for weeks on end to fill in for long staff shortages
- teachers having to fight for proper salary payments
- teachers being publicly humiliated, reprimanded and even getting docked pay for various silly 'infringements' as decided by the board's whim and fancy
- the director's stab-in-the-back management style
- the arrogance and dismissive attitude of those at the top of the food chain
- the tears and anger on the school bus (that would be teachers, not students!)
- the rude, condescending, disciplinary emails
- the ridiculous 'promotions' of inexperienced people to flamboyant-sounding, meaningless positions
- the inequality of teacher timetables and workloads
- the serious behaviour issues in the boys' school (and to an extent in the girls')
- the misrepresentation of students' real grades to parents
- the overall and undeniable negative atmosphere of the whole place

This self-proclaimed 'world-class school' is an INSULT and an EMBARRASSMENT to the international teaching community!"
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6. "The school has no hope of getting accredited, as they cannot keep staff, have no curriculum, the management has no qualifications to run a school, and over the past years the school has actually digressed from where it was. The CITA people are smart and so are the IB people. How is that accreditation and IB going anyway? I would bet no where."
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7. "-Academic integrity...there is none at this school. The admin changes the grades, period. It makes you wonder why you try teaching anything, if the results are changed by the "Exams Coordinator" (Mr. Rami). The teachers are great, it's the admin that is lacking integrity.

-Just because you are promised certain housing or salary or a job teaching a certain subject, you may not get them upon arrival in Abu Dhabi. They say what is necessary to get you in the country, and give you whatever they feel like when you arrive. It doesn't matter if you get it in writing, they may go back on their word.

-If you don't mind that Israel, Jews, Judaism, or any symbols of Judaism are blacked out of every text/library book, then this is the place for you. If you mention Israel in the classroom you will be fired. The racism in this country is particularly hard to stomach.

-Last year they had "quality control" spies walking around the school, watching the teachers and taking notes which would be brought to the director, who would in turn reprimand teachers for their "transgressions". Transgressions such as not being on the playground during playtime--even if it wasn't their assigned duty. I've heard from returning staff that the quality control department has been dissolved this year, but would you really want to work in a school that would implement something so ridiculous?

All of the good resources are housed in the boys' section of the school. If you work in the girls' or primary sections, it can be difficult to get supplies/resources.

-The school advertises as an IB candidate school, but they will never get the IB. Half of the texts are blacked out or have pages removed. Same goes for the library. All of the grades get changed (the IB knows about the grade changing, as one of last years' teachers wrote them an email tipping them off)."
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8. "This school is an absolute joke and an educational travesty. I would strongly recommend to anyone thinking of working for ENS to read all of the reviews carefully and take heed of them. This is by far the worst international school I have ever worked in and by a country mile the worst administration I have ever seen, or even heard of. The school is run by a "puppet" director named Majid, who on the exterior seems genuinely interested in correcting the many mistakes of the past. In reality he is actually not running the show. Some lady who calls herself the "quality control" supervisor named Rudaina actually holds all the power. The teachers who have been there long enough know that not only was she a horrible teacher before her "miraculous" promotion into the upper echelons of the school, but she runs the school based on deceit, favoritism and nonsensical decisions. Everybody at the school (especially the principal, who have no real power or influence on their respective campus) feel the same. If the chairperson of the school, Dr. Jamaal, is really the genius everyone says he is....why does he let this person continue to ruin his school? It is too bad, the facility and resources are available, Abu Dhabi is a nice city and the students are for the most part great kids. Unfortunately this school is run by individuals who have no care for quality education, but rather focus all energy on trying to keep their jobs by making parents happy by illusion. This school is an absolute joke and no further ahead after 8 years of poor administration."
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9. "What a horrible, HORRIBLE place. I do not know where to begin.... I have NEVER been so mistreated and disrespected in my life, and I have worked in several third world countries prior to my employment with ENS. It's important to state that like many international schools, ENS is a business. ENS differs from other schools in that it deals with ludicrous amounts of money. After all, Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world. Greed, prejudice and disrespect are what makes ENS go round.

The curriculum is a joke. There's nothing to teach. Quite frankly, I'm tired of staying up late, creating worksheets and guessing at what I should be teaching. The students' ability is quite low as well. It doesn't help that their Filipino nannies complete their homework assignment or their parents purchase assignments. The parents themselves are very difficult and expect 95% in all subjects. How can an EAL student achieve 95% when he/she cannot differentiate between present and past tenses and when his/her English sounds like Arabic? Parents march in yelling in Arabic and demand higher grades because they know some sheikh (everyone knows or is related to some sheikh). Sad part is the administration caves sometimes. My integrity is gone.

Last year, we were to resign by 1 March without penalty. Two days afterwards, we were told that we were losing our housing in the city of Abu Dhabi and being shipped off to Mussafah, a 30 minutes drive out into the desert, where transportation and basic amenities are scarce. Anyone who resigned after hearing this news lost their gratuity and was penalized by being forced to pay back airfare, visa and medical. Those of us with years of service were forced to stay on or lose thousands of pounds!

Our new accommodation is right by the very labour camps that were shown on the BBC in March 2009 and accused of various transgressions against humanity. If you treat people like animals, they will become animals. That's what's happened to some of the Labour Camp residents who originate from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc. Our school aides regularly tell us stories of being followed in the evening (5 or 6pm) from the shop by migrant workers who touch themselves inappropriately and masturbate in the lobbies of their buildings. They're tried calling the police, but that's futile; in the UAE, rape is a woman's problem. Women will get charged with "adultery" and deported.

Many teachers have now been moved to Mussafah, but some others have instead decided to run. Good on them! Most contracts are up this year, and my guess is that 90% of the staff is NOT returning. That's a large amount... especially considering ENS is the largest school in the UAE.

Recently, the newer staff were forced to sign a new contract to replace their original contract. This contract states that if "suitable accommodation" is not found, then the teacher will be paid a 2,500 dirham monthly stipend. That wouldn't even cover the rent of a bedroom... not even a wardrobe..."
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10. "Just to add to the above, in signing the new contract, which is being retro-dated to 09-01-2008, employees would be signing away "all intellectual property rights associated with whatever work or activities he/she has conducted during, or as a result of, his/her employment at ENS". I have NEVER known an educational institution to demand property rights. As teachers, aren't we meant to keep learning and bettering ourselves?

Those few who have not signed the contract are being threatened by Kenneth (MOD edit) right-hand man, Erik (MOD edit), with termination.

And to respond to the individual who stated that the school will only improve with an influx of good teachers... Hitler's and Bush's politics didn't improve with immigration. When the administration is made up of dictators, no amount of good teachers can hope to improve the state of the school. It is simply devastating."

[johnslat]

Dar Firefly28,

What a shame - all that work and your post is certainly going to be deleted and/or this thread will disappear.

You really should have eliminated specific names before posting.

But if you read this before a Mod does, you can still correct that.

Regards,
John