Job Discussion Forums

[lapd08]

Has anyone taught at this school? I think it is fairly new. Obviously, I'd like feedback, good as well as bad.

Thanks

[veiledsentiments]

Did you do a search? I believe that it has been around for awhile and even discussed here before.

Also do a search of Sabis on the other threads. They are a well known, but not well-liked employer around the Middle East.

VS

[Sunburnt Individual]

Erbil is their new venture. To find out what they did in the past year, check out these links:

http://sabisstinks.wordpress.com/

http://www.sabis-warning.com/

A lot of bad stuff has gone on.

[Anonymousfornow]

As posted earlier: I do not think people realize how manipulative and evil a company can be. Sabis is scary. I got a contract from Sabis in Kurdistan recently that I could not sign. I do not think it would even be legal in the US. It would allow Sabis to decide what I did 24 hours per day and 7 days per week for 10 months and did not guarantee any pay because Sabis could fine me any amount for any reason at their discretion. Worse yet, I could owe them a huge amount of money if I left the job for ANY reason (over $12,000). This would have to be paid or they could hold my passport! This was the worst of the contract, but the rest was bad, too. Sabis said this was standard for the industry, but if it is, I need to find some other type of work! Seriously, though, this job may be dangerous. The recruitment was not at all honest, and you may be a slave and unable to leave their property for as long as they wish to have you there. Life is more "brutish and short" there by their choice, and there is no one to help you.

[CanadianAbroad]

I was shocked to come across this discussion. My experience was not as bad as what you guys make it out to be. I taught there for a year and would love to go back after I finish my Masters. Kurdistan is a beautiful place. SABIS paid me to teach, which is exactly what I did, 5 days a week for a whole year. There was no confusion, no drama, no nothing. It was a great way to save and there is no way I could have saved more than $20,000 that easy anywhere else in the world (and oh have I had my fair of travels)! The dorms on campus are brand new, clean and quiet! I've made friends there who have renewed their contracts and I'm hoping I'll be there to join them soon. The money I saved is what's paying off my pricey tuition for my masters program.

[trapezius]

[CanadianAbroad]

I'm talking about MY expereince (which is what I thought was the whole purpose of these forums to share each persons experience). I'm not talking about any teaching expereince around the world for anyone.

[trapezius]

Yeah, there is something called logic. See the difference between:

This is the best pizza in the world.

This is the best pizza I have ever had.

The only way you can make the 1st statement is if you have tried every pizza in the world. To make the 2nd one, it doesn't matter how many you have had (you might have had only 2 pizzas ever), it just has to be the best among the ones you have tried.

And you made the 1st statement. You should have made the 2nd one:

There is no way I could have saved more than $20,000 that easy anywhere else I have worked.

Sorry, logical fallacies are a pet peeve of mine.

[babur]

CAUTION - A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Quote:

I was shocked to come across this discussion. My experience was not as bad as what you guys make it out to be. I taught there for a year and would love to go back after I finish my Masters. Kurdistan is a beautiful place. SABIS paid me to teach, which is exactly what I did, 5 days a week for a whole year. There was no confusion, no drama, no nothing. It was a great way to save and there is no way I could have saved more than $20,000 that easy anywhere else in the world (and oh have I had my fair of travels)! The dorms on campus are brand new, clean and quiet! I've made friends there who have renewed their contracts and I'm hoping I'll be there to join them soon. The money I saved is what's paying off my pricey tuition for my masters program.

And you expect us to believe a teacher wrote this????????????????????

There will never be a SABIS school in Afghanistan. Parents and teachers here are not that desperate or gullible.

[trapezius]

Afghanistan? I thought we were talking about Kurdistan?

Anyway, yeah, I have never heard a positive review of any SABIS school by a teacher. A lot of parents seem to love it, but apparently not many teachers, if any.

[veiledsentiments]

[lapd08]

I taught there for TWO years. The first year was tolerable, the second a nightmare. CanadianAbroad does not say what year she taught and as I may have stated before, the administration's treatment of teachers has gotten worse and worse as they have gotten more successful and consequently arrogant. It borders on the abusive in some cases.

Kurdistan is NOT beautiful. Erbil looks like something out of Mad Max and has absolutely NOTHING of redeeming value (and I lived in Mexico City for a year).

I agree that this entry is either a plant or written by a "sock puppet" of the administration. Yes, it is true that you can save a lot of money IF you don't travel out of the country, which you will need to do for your sanity. Also, as other than some expat bars, which charge expat prices there is nothing to do here, so of course you will be able to save money. I know of only one Canadian who taught there for a year and she left under very bad circumstances three weeks before the year ended after enduring a lot of abuse. I cannot imagine that she wrote this.

The housing is not bad, but has some problems including rodents and a sewage system that backs up into the shower on occasion and the apartments are tiny-unless you are Lebanese in which case you get the better apartments-actually you get better everything.

As to getting paid on time...this is open to what your interpretation of "on time" is. It became more difficult the second year when you would have to hope that the bank arrived with your money when you had a free period and that the line wasn't too long, or that the dodgey internet hadn't gone down again, or that the bank even showed up.

I would not tell someone "don't teach here", as I do not know what the current circumstances are and everyone has their own agenda. Just expect to suffer for every penny of the money that they pay you with such ill grace (what , you expect to get paid for the privilege of working for them?) and set aside a certain amount of your salary for sanity trips out of the country.

[GOTL]

So are they no longer paying in cash as they did the first year when I taught there?
I would never agree to have a bank account and would demand to be paid in cash. If that can not be agreed to prior to arriving I would not go.
I have since completed a Masters in TEFL and have began my first term of a PhD program. I am not sure if ISC-Erbil is horrible as everyone is saying. There were issues when I was there but that was over four years ago. All I can say is the children and families I worked with were amazing.

[lapd08]

If you taught there four year ago, I am sure things were better. The year I arrived, people were saying things had been better the year before, when the school was in a different location. And I was telling people my second year that things had been better my previous year. All of which proves my point that things have gotten steadily worse for teachers-and students.

The students (I never met any parents) were my primary reason for returning a second year, but as enrollment increased, it became almost impossible to spend any quality time with them. Classes were overcrowded and most students were in the wrong level-i.e. they simply passed them along to the next highest level. All control was taken away from the teachers-including seating arrangements and a policy of gender segregation was instituted despite the assurance of the original director that this did not happen in SABIS schools.

I don't even want to know what they will do next, but I'm sure it won't be good.

[GOTL]

If what you write is true, it saddens me.