Job Discussion Forums

[matthew156]

Anyone ever work here or know about this school?

Matt

[veiledsentiments]

Are you starting to think that you will never get into the Kingdom?

I recall some discussion of this place. Try the search. There isn't much traffic on the Bahrain branch.

VS

[matthew156]

No it's not that at all. I recieved an email from them to send in my resume and qualifications. I thought that while I'm here I might as well go directly there on Sunday hand them eveything and do the interview all at once. I checked google maps and the location is only about 2 miles away. That's walking distance for someone who was in two different armed forces.

If they offer good then I discuss with the boss (wife) an we go from there.

Regards.

Matt

[johnslat]

Dear matthew156,
"That's walking distance for someone who was in two different armed forces."

Which ones, if you don't mind my asking? I was in the USMC.
Regards,
John

[sheikh radlinrol]

Matt
Enjoy Bahrain while you're there. You'll miss it once you get into the Magic Kingdom. I can recommend the Gulf Gate Hotel. Various bars, hookers and a nice atmosphere. Bahrain is fun. Make the most of it while you can.
SR

[matthew156]

Hi johnslat,

No I don't mind at all in fact I'll share here with all. I was in the Canadian Armed Forces for a year. I volunteered for the reserves and made it all the way to private first class. I was a vehicle technician, I only chose that because we got to carry smgs as our sidearm then they ended up qualifying me for all sorts of weapons because I was a good marksman and could hit a target with a grenade; just joking but really they said I was outstanding in a mine field. This was not good because every time we went out on tactical maneuvers they gave me the FNC2 support LMG and I was laying cover fire while my squad advanced. So basically I became a primary target. Plus the amount of ammo I had to carry weighed me down a lot. Then after I came to my senses and obtained an honourable discharge I went t Turkey 6 years later and did my compulsary service with the Turkish Armed Forces. I was designated a comando combat engineer, the gravediggers. Thats where I learned many nasty things about explosives. After basic training though the base commander got hint of my English capability and gave me a heap load of American weapons manuals to translate into Turkish. This was great I basically got to slack off for a year and complete my tour of duty translating and going to the officers vacation resorts in the summer to be a DJ on their open air discoth�ques.

So that's it in a nutshell.

Regards

Matt

[johnslat]

Dear matthew156,
My goodness - I don't imagine there are too many individuals who've served in both the Canadian and the Turkish armed forces.
How the heck did you get into the Turkish army; were you a Turkish citizen?
Regards,
John
P.S. you can PM me if you prefer to answer that way.

[teachingmaniac]

I taught at Al Hekma International School in Bahrain for several years. Do not accept employment here. While the school is making gains and has made improvements, it still is a bad environment to work in.

I will begin by stating what is positive about this school, because I wouldn�t have stayed as long as I did had there been no good experiences. I found the teachers to be friendly and I got along very well with both the Arab and Western staff at the school. The students were a joy to work with and that�s the most important part of teaching. The principal, Ms Lee (MOD edit), is very, very kind and understanding of what we were going through and was always available for us to vent to. Also, the school offers professional development to its staff both in Bahrain and outside the country (Greece, Thailand, Turkey).

The reason all of the staff had such negative experiences was that the school is a for-profit private school and most of what it does is to save/make money lines the pockets of the owner. If the money went to a good cause maybe I wouldn�t be so bitter, but this place is a business first and a school second. Once you accept this it makes it easier to understand why it is the way it is.

Some of the frustrations we had were that the school was run by the Rima, the curriculum director. I am not sure what her degree is but from what from what I understand, she taught in a high school classroom for part of one year, hated it, and is now in administration. She may be a good businesswoman but has no business controlling what and how the teachers teach. As I said above, the principal of the school is very nice, but she doesn�t have a backbone and will not or cannot stand up for us. As our only ally in the school, this made us feel like we were on our own. All decisions she wanted to make had to be approved by the curriculum director.

Another thing I had a hard time dealing with was the poor educational quality. Most teachers in the west learn at their universities to do lots of hands-on, real-world activities. This is not discouraged at Al Hekma, but we are required to complete all workbooks by the end of the year and that doesn�t always leave much time for activities. Teachers who didn�t do their workbooks got �in trouble.� As a result shildren were forced to complete the workbooks, missing out on P.E. and other specials because the teachers finished the workbooks. This happened at the pre-school and Kindergarten and elementary level! Rima was responsible for approving ALL copies. Some teachers have noticed instances of her giving copies of tests to her daughter to study from. I observed this firsthand. Grades were highly inflated and many, many teachers have noticed that the grades they input were changed when report cards were issued. Al Hekma is known throughout Bahrain as being a school where you pay to get your diploma, you don�t earn it. Gulf University, which is owned by the same person and is attached to the school, has the same reputation.

The primary reason so many have had problems was the poor treatment of its staff members. Among many things, we got our pay late on some occasions, some of the teachers were without health insurance when it expired and it went unnoticed for 5 months.

When we have gone to Rima to complain or make suggestions, she gets very defensive. Should you ever get in to an argument with her, know that you cannot win. Even if you �win,� she will retaliate in a passive-aggressive manner. I have seen very good quality, professional teachers have pay mysteriously taken away (which they did get back, but with a fight), get �picked on� by her and others, and generally mistreated because she did not like them.

As far as any of us can tell, we only know of 6 Westerners who have completed their contract in the 20+ year history of the school. It is difficult to calculate because no one�Western or Arab�stays there long enough to know.

Per the contract, money gets taken out of the first 6 paychecks, totaling approximately $1000. This is meant to be a security for the school should you not complete the contract. However, we were threatened many times to have some or all of it taken away if I didn�t comply with certain rules.

Also, the westerners are made to feel like they are inflexible and insensitive to the Arab culture and that is why we have such a problem there. I have lived several years there and know that why they try to pass off as an �Arab tradition� is really just greedy business practices. Plenty of Arab staff have left mid-contract because were get fed up.

Finally, I do wish to address the fact that what we have complained about in the school or brought up amongst ourselves is written off by the administration as gossip. Because the administration either said nothing about what was going around or outright denied the claims of the staff, how else would we learn about all of the awful things going on there? We were all there long enough to know that the administration was shady and didn�t appreciate their teaching staff. Even if you don�t believe a word I have written here, look at other websites by other teachers from this school and you will see that very few were happy here. If you are seriously looking into international teaching, it is worth it to pay the $30 fee to look at reviews by teachers at www.internationalschoolsreview.com. If a school is not reviewed there or elsewhere on the web, chances are no one was angry with their experience at the school. Therefore they didn�t feel compelled to warn others about the school so it may be alright.

If you are currently working at Al Hekma or are planning to go there, there are some things to keep in mind: check every month that your pay is correct, keep pay stubs for every paycheck (you will have to ask for these as we didn�t get them every month), keep copies of everything you sign, and keep copies of emails you get. I wish I had so that I had more proof of what we dealt with.

Also, it is beneficial to make the effort to get along with the staff there. It�s hard to do when you are very angry at the school! But understand that the Arab staff is in a different, yet equally or more unfairly tough situation. A few simple things you can do that will make things go more smoothly are to say good morning to the Arab staff every morning and when asking for help/requesting anything from other staff members, always take a second ask how they are doing before asking your business/work-related question.

All in all, I had a terrible experience teaching in at Al Hekma, but really enjoyed living in Bahrain and having the opportunity to travel around the region. I miss living there very much.

(MOD edit for names)

[teachingmaniac]

Some (rather bitter, in my opinion) person has compiled all of the reviews of Al Hekma International school in one place.

The reviews are mostly negative, but unfortunately accurate. Please do your research before agreeing to work here.

http://al-hekma-is-horrid.tumblr.com/

[Arabian Hawk]

Salaries for ESL teachers at this school in Bahrain are on par with Indian Subcontinent teachers standards thus western native speakers can only expect to be treated as South Asian nationals when it comes to recieving their pay!

[Anglichanka]

Hey /- I completed my contract! in 2004. I was hired for 7 months and I completed them. Though while I was there, three other people ran away in mid contract - guess who had to pick up all the extra hours. When I arrived, I discovered I was replacing three people who had run away in the middle of term. Well, nobody told me on the first day.

All cleaning, catering and non academic staff were, quite literally, treated like slaves. Their passports were taken away and they were not allowed to leave the premises - truly!

Very interested to read your post. Seems like everyone I knew has gone.

Diabolically awful place. Horribly treated local and other Arab staff, horribly treated foreign staff. The owner/Director (Mona - I can't remember her other name) was a total bitch and everyone shat when she came near (except me - I called her bluff, but then, I don't take too well to attempts at intimidation). Miss Sawsan was the chief administrator and she was a wonderful person who tried in every way to do a good job and was as supportive as she could be, but with the bitch queen up there in her fancy office (practically the length of a corridor and with gold-leaf trimmed furniture) - no way anyone could win. Students were largely diabolical too. No discipline because they would not get rid of the trouble-makers. Colossal fat kid about six inches taller than me told his parents I made red marks on his arm! I never touched his nasty fat arm and, in any case, as I demonstrated to his father, my hands were too small. Another boy threw condoms on the floor next to me on my first day and, on another occasion, tried to scare me into backing up by getting more close than you want anyone except maybe Johnny Depp.

I was given many hours of extra work, for no pay, and I was the lucky one. Others did worse than me.

Job from hell.

Sounds like it has improved quite a bit if the students are nice. I had the upper classes and a large percentage of the boys were seriously unpleasant. Just a few notably nice lads who must have had a rough time with the others. I found some really nice parents, too, though not those whose sons were thugs.

[Arabian Hawk]

Al Hekma is where EFL teachers go to suffer in Bahrain if they can't hack teaching in the more lucrative neighbouring GCC countries!

[scot47]

Salaries are much better on this side of the King Fahad Causeway. KSA is not so bad. The first 20 years are the worst.

[teachingmaniac]

Here's a link to another website with several reviews about Al Hekma:

http://www.xomreviews.com/alhekma.com

I hope you're convinced by now!