Job Discussion Forums

[darhell]

Anyone contemplating a job with Dar Al Uloom Colleges consider yourself warned. The list is long, but I will only stick to the most important ones.
1. They do not honor their contract.
2. We are all working illegally at this point having arrived in September 08. We have some illegal stamp in our passport that does not exist because Dar Al Uloom is "above the law". This has caused extreme headaches for all employees at some point or another. Trying to leave the country for vacation costs blood, sweat, and tears.
3. The probation period is just that. You may be fired at any second. So far the firings that have taken place have been immoral, unjustified, and immoral. They tell the person at the end of the day, not to come back tomorrow. Did that person do something so terrible to warrant such a firing? No, maybe one of the princesses complained about them, and thats it, goodbye. That person is then stranded in Saudi Arabia, trying to figure out what they are supposed to do, with no response or communication from Human Resources.
4. The teacher coordinator is highly unqualified, backstabbing, and evil if I do say so from my own experiences with her. She holds a teaching certificate and a TEFL certificate. She does not have the people skills to develop her staff, nor the personality to lead. She is looking for dirt and reporting to the Admin. She did observations of all of us, there was no feedback or development as a result. They were typed as formal observations and submitted to someone somewhere, and we never saw them and I am assuming we never will. When a certain grammar teacher had students complain (oh wait, they didnt complain, the coordinator went to them to ask if they liked their teacher) the coordinator went that teacher and said the students didnt understand your lesson, you might get fired for that. No development or assistance offered. Just threats threats threats.

I am not going to put more here. I just want you to be warned. I highly suggest you DO NOT WORK for this organization, do not believe their lying recruiter who defines the problems as teething problems, it is far more than that. I have worked with organizations with "teething problems" before, and this is not that, this organization is toxic from the top-down. They will never overcome their teething problems while appointing unqualified and rude personell (HR and PYP coordinator). And the good sign of a top administrator is that they are able to see strengths in people and appoint them accordingly, so I would say that the admin is just as bad and certainly are bad judges of character. The teachers here arent even flaunting fake degrees like at PSU, they actually were hired WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THEY DO NOT HAVE DEGREES. Since September 2008 over 6 teachers have left (not to mention 10 Saudi admin assistants) for greener pastures, some escaping in the night with the assistance of their embassy. And in all this, money problems, admin problems, we are supposed to teach without any curriculum or standards..... GOOD TIMES. If you have any specific concerns or questions I will answer them, just reply to my post. BTW (I love living in Riyadh, and the Saudi girls I am friends with are genuine, caring, and honest; This post is specific to my experience with DAR AL ULOOM College and specific employees there)

[Cleopatra]

[scot47]

"We have some illegal stamp in our passport that does not exist because Dar Al Uloom is "above the law". This has caused extreme headaches for all employees at some point or another. "

What ":illegal stamp" ? Don you have an Iqama ?

[darhell]

9`

[darhell]

[Cleopatra]

My reply was not intended to dismiss what you wrote. It's important for people to know the problems which exist at this college, even if, sadly, they are all too common. Teachers often believe that the grass is greener elsewhere.

Usually, it isn't.

[johnslat]

Actually, there isn't even much grass at all in most of the Kingdom.
Regards,
John

[007]

Well, in some parts of the Magic Kingdom, there is artificial grass, from outside is green, but from inside is black!
So, the choice is yours.

[balqis]

look below

[balqis]

typical of Arabia, darhell;

if you take up another job in Saudia you will only extend your judgement from a specific college in Riyadh to the local colour of the entire country; in retrospect your future experience may ease up your current anger at your current employer [ not much sense in what i have just said, but still a grain of sense present];
this happened to me at least; my second job was as bad as the first one was, if not worse in many a respect, though i worked for a place that claimed upon recruiting its teething pains had been already completed;
my first Saudi place, btw, preferred - in its own prattle - to use a ''delivery pains'' descriptor to the ''teething pains'' one;
so we all, female and male teachers there, delivered in pains non-stop;
hope you are fine and not too traumatised;

chapeau bas for your straight courage...

balgis

[Stephen Jones]

It would be nice if you gave details; exactly what visa you were on, whether you had a residence permit and so on.

[balqis]

darhell,

my visa status at one of the unis in Arabia seemed to be a carbon copy of what you are trying to depict in your post;
for me it meant i spent there almost a year illegally/partly legally, anyway not fully legally;
the following problem may arise for you as it did for me: you may not be given a NOC if they hired you illegally as there is no justification for a NOC for you;
further on, and if the above applies, what do you do if you want to ever return to Arabia and work there?

balqis

[bergerac]

Can you be more specific as to what part of the contract was not honoured?

Stamps in passports with a busines visa are usually only extensions of the business visa and there is nothing illegal about that. It is standard practice in the Kingdom and does not reflect any bad intention or double agenda on the part of the institution.

Visa regulations are sometimes complicated in Saudi Arabia for all employers and can be a real headache for the employee as well as the employer!

What I know of DAU is that they have one of the best packages for TEFL teachers, good basic salary (between SAR 14 000 and SAR 16 000) plus generous benefits. Settling in allowance and furniture allowance plus up to SAR 50 000 for housing.

Salaries get paid on time and benefits as well, even people being sacked get their due!

If you know another place which offers that in Saudi with a BA and /or MA, you let everyone in this forum know about it.

I am also curious to know what other institution, anywhere in the world would tolerate their employees posting that sort of libelous literature about them.

If you are working with these people and are still working there after writing what you wrote, I think it is a telling sign that they can't be this bad, because I am sure that they must know who you are by now.
Take care.

[scot47]

I work in one of the older unis in KSA and have lots of experience. I pick up just over 12,000 SR a month.

[bergerac]

Maybe you should change. A growing number of Higher Education Institutions offer better deals in the Kingdom nowadays.