Job Discussion Forums

[reneebcc]

Anyone have experience with Sabis: International School of Choufait? I've had an interview and been offered $2000 USD/month tax free. I have a BA in English, 2 years of experience, and will complete my MA in Education this summer. Can I negotiate a higher salary or is this the norm for people even with teaching experience?

[Tom Le Seelleur]

Do you have any kind of teaching qualification? This often often helps to oil a rise. You only have two years experience though which is quite low for these parts though long enough for the kind of teaching you are likely to do depending on the level and job requirement. Sabis are liked/disliked, rarely a middle ground. Good experience if you want to then go somewhere else after your first contract

[mishmumkin]

Masters in EDucation w/ a teaching qualification? Run the other direction. If you do a search of Sabis/Choueifat you'll find a good bit of info on these forums. No, don't expect them to negotiate the salary.

[mishmumkin]

Masters in EDucation w/ a teaching qualification? Run the other direction. If you do a search of Sabis/Choueifat you'll find a good bit of info on these forums. No, don't expect them to negotiate the salary.

[RandaHarke]

I worked for Choueifat for a few years. Although I would not return, I can say that even though it's socially a viper's nest, they never messed with our money. Contrast that with Mourad, Habib and Black at Nibras that recently took advantage of teachers at an all new level. They went as far as substituting 3 year contracts for one year contracts so that when the teachers ended their legal one year year contracts, they could steal their end of contract benefits. The teachers were conned into signing a 3 year Arabic contract for visa only purposes and were told that their one year English contracts would be the ones that controlled their relationship with the school. Then without telling the teachers what they intended, they enforced the 3 year contract so that it made it look like the teachers were breaking their contracts. Then to add insult to injury, they booked one way tickets to home destinations (much more expensive that two way tickets) and deducted the higher plane fare from the end of service benefits. They also did not pay the month of August and deducted 15 days pay for breaking contracts. The teachers had been told (I was there) that if they did not sign the 3 year contracts, visas would not be granted and the teachers would have to return home at their own expense immediately. This is one of the greatest swindles of all time.
Choueifat has a nice bonus system if you can make two years, my friends tell me it has been increased to 24,000 dirhams and that combined with end of service gratuity is pretty good. I think the starting pay for new teachers is 7,500 dirhams per month.
So, much as been written about Choueifat and you have the right stuff to stay two years but compared to Nibras, Choueifat is a well oiled machine and they absolutely do not mess with your money.

[mishmumkin]

[RandaHarke]

You are correct that since teachers generally teach around 180 days a year, when you are sick, they deduct two days pay for every day sick. Choueifat as I stated before is a viper's nest and not a healthy place to work. One of my teacher friends worked at the Sharjah branch and described the Haley husband and wife team as being particulary nasty. What some people won't do for money and the illusion of power.
But my overall point is that while Choueifat is a mess and should be avoided, schools like Nibras with Mourad, Black and Habib operate at an even lower standard (difficult to believe, huh?) and the word needs to get out for all to avoid them. And it does not help that the "laws" heavily favor the employers in the UAE which is one of the reasons why human rights are so deplorable here. The workers really have no real rights.

[mafimishkala]

If you want to work in a place where you are guaranteed to get paid Sabis is the place.If you want to work in a place where your qualifications and experience are appreciated - stay away.If you want to work in a place where most of the time you can walk out of the school and don't have any lesson prep then the system is for you.The Sabis system is a well oiled machine and you will be a cog in it.You have to spend your time there with that idea in mind or you can't cope with it.There is no individuality at all.
The students as in any school in the world can be difficult but at least they do have a disciplinary system in place.I always call Choueifat the best of the worst in the UAE at least.As far as I am aware they don't negotiate on salaries.

[veiledsentiments]

That certainly matches everything I have heard about Sabis over the years. I would only recommend it for that first job... foot in the door... something to put on the CV... a safe paycheck... and experience in dealing with rather oppressive management in a highly regulated system (teach to the test) to learn how you never want to teach again. And perhaps gain some experience in classroom management skills while having a management that will at least back you up on this.

VS

[robbievienna]

Concur.

If you treat working at Sabis as a job, rather than a career, if you ignore the stupid drama, and socialize with non-work people, then you just put in your six-hours a day, and put the money in the bank. Even though I left them on somewhat rocky terms, they still always got my money on time.

However, if you want to continue working in the UAE afterwards, you may have difficulties. While I was interviewing with a number of other employers, I was frequently asked if I hadn't heard of their reputation... Working for Sabis seems to have been a black mark when applying for other jobs elsewhere.

[mishmumkin]

[Zoot]

The reason getting from this organization into a good school is to do with a lack of qualifications and a rote teaching-learning system. Sth Africans are being targeted because they need to get out of their own country. Poor things don't have many choices and are pretty much 'yes' men/women. Qualifications and subject knowledge as well as English language are usually not up to scratch with western countries such as the US, NZ, UK, Canada and Australia.

[Sunburnt Individual]

I was told during one interview that they don't normally interview ex-Choueifat teachers because "they don't adapt well to a normal school environment" but they still interviewed me because I had a few years of solid teaching experience BEFORE working with Choueifat. So the advice that having a teaching degree/experience countering the Choueifat black mark is partially true from my experience.

After working with Choueifat, getting interviewed and accepted is only HALF the problem. The bigger problem is Choueifat's policy of not giving letters of no objection, EVER. That will prevent a lot of people from staying employed here unless you can stay and work illegally on a tourist visa until the ban expires after 6 months. People from SA and certain other places don't always have that option because they can't just hop over the border to Oman every 2 months.

My experience with Choueifat was 100%, unbearably negative. I have never met someone with a positive experience from there. At best the response is a "mehhhhh, I survived."

I really dislike the "they pay on time" argument in favor of Choueifat because a) it's not like paying on time is something unexpected, and b) they screw it up all the time anyway (like putting YOUR salary in someone else's account) and then YOU have to work it out.

If you don't care at all about your job, the students or anything except a paycheck, Choueifat is for you. Otherwise, don't even waste your time reading whatever crap they've posted.

[mishmumkin]

[robbievienna]