Job Discussion Forums

RickBlaine · Joined: 26 Jun 2011 Posts: 26

Is Sabis University related to the Sabis/Chouifat international schools I've been reading about on here (not good press either) or is it a different entity? I've seen ads for teachers at Sabis University. Any thoughts?

RB

Badar Bin Bada Boom · Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:06 pm Post subject:

This is the general ME forum, so which country are you talking about?

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

Yes, it is the same organization. It is basically to train teachers for their program - since it is different from what any normal education training. And all the negatives that you read have held steady over the years. Avoid them if you can...

VS

RickBlaine · Joined: 26 Jun 2011 Posts: 26

Sorry for being vague. I'm asking about Sabis University in Erbil, Iraq.

RB

sanpedro72 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 86 Location: Earth

Hi all,

I was hired to teach future Ministry of Education teachers and love my job. Only 4 hours of teaching per day and these teachers in training are generally great students. Sure my class is a bit packed and there's a bit of confusion all around, but I am really enjoying my job for the first time in years (compared to my first job in Kurdistan and my 3 years in Turkey) and the people in Suleimania, Kurdistan, Iraq are generally fantastic and hospitable. For the workload, the amount of free-time and awesome colleagues, I recommend it. Also the teacher training contracts are 7 months only and still receive a free round-trip ticket to one of 5 major Middle East destinations during Newroz, a paid flight of your choice at the end of June and a $2000 bonus at the end of June. I was lucky to have been here (in Erbil..bleccch...at the time) and have been working for a god-awful school before I made the seamless switch. Even though I'm glad I have joined SABIS, like any other job on the planet, I'll have to see how it goes.

I hope this helps...and from another perspective. Any questions...please PM me.

Cheers,

JNL

whitehouse · Joined: 06 Mar 2008 Posts: 31 Location: CHINA

I would agree that the students are OK at Erbill.
My recent experience with the administration was that I asked for an office key, and for accommodation where I did not have to share a house and bathroom with 3 strangers and for the correct stuff to teach to meet the exam questions which were being set in another branch in another country to be told to me.
After 10 days they had not managed to get me an office key and although they had agreed that the accommodation situation was OK for a student but not for a lecturer, nothing was done about the accommodation (despite promises of a reply in a week)and I was not given the correct information about the exam content so I left regretably. If they had managed to deal with any one of those 3 matters I would have stayed but one can only take so much incompetence and the prospects did not look any better.

sanpedro72 · Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 86 Location: Earth

I totally understand. Because the administration is mixed from local and Lebanon hires, there is a lot of overlapped responsibilities which sends organization into chaos. But compared to the admins in Turkey where I lived for 3 years, the people who here no matter how disorganized are much friendlier. I loved just teaching 4 lessons straight and because there is isn't a physical school yet I get picked up from the training center at 1pm, go home and prep in my sweats Smile

However, the PPP schools program is not finely chiseled out, which leaves a lot of room for confusion for the teacher. As for the apartment, it's not that great, would have preferred a villa. The place was filthy when I moved in as well. But everyone thing else is ok. Good luck in your next job!