This school is backed by the royal family. It has the best facilities of any school in Kuwait. They charge the highest tuition and also pay their staff the highest salaries for any American or bilingual schools. Currently only goes up to 10th grade. This will be the top school in Kuwait if it can get US embassy school status within the coming years. Even without that it is going to eventually surpass everyone else. The staff is made up of mostly Americans recruited at the Atlanta fair.

There is really no comparison. UAE beats Kuwait in every way except for one. In Kuwait you can save some money but in Abu Dhabi and Dubai you will have a much harder time saving.

Kuwait doesn't have a tier 1 school. Al Bayan Bilingual, American International School, American School of Kuwait, Universal American School, British School of Kuwait, and American United School are all variations of low end tier 2 schools. All the other schools are complete garbage.

PsyGuy wrote:
> @ShakHak
>
> What I mean by "Mercenary" is that when it comes to the ME you
> have to have a laser focused mindset that your there for the money, always
> the money, because the ITs (and really many professions and business) that
> survive in the tidal wave and whirl pool of poo that will surround you from
> spoiled kids whos parents can have you locked up for allegedly saying
> anything about Allah or Muhammad, to the human atrocities (workers being
> beaten by their employers), to the bureaucratic crud from the ministry and
> provincial authorities all the way to your own schools sociopathic admin
> and ownership, to the coworkers that could not get a job outside the ME to
> save their lives, that keep "the money" firmly centered and
> focused in their minds and that guides them day by day just as a mercenary
> keeps their mission and their survival the focus of what they do, it is
> those ITs that are successful in the ME.

I don't think that I've EVER agreed with PsyGuy on here but I think this quote is spot on.

[quote="PsyGuy"]Why does it matter who runs the school or how great the school is, its still in the ME. If GOD were running the school, it would still have to be in the ME with all the issues and headaches that brings with it. Being in the best school in the ME is like being in the nicest part of hades, its still all fire and brimstone.[/quote]

Good point. I've defended being in the ME before because I like my school so much and I let that blind me to how bad living in the ME sucks.

If you got an offer from ASD you should take it. Might be the best school in the ME. Top 3 for sure.


If you housing is paid for and you get COLA then you can save there as long as you don't get caught up in trying to compete with the high rollers. You could save $10-20k per year depending on your lifestyle.

CDN just said what I wanted to say earlier. ABS is a place students that get kicked out of other schools go. I did not work there but have spoken with a few teachers at my school that have and they have said nothing good about it, or should I say nothing good about the admin, including the owner. They have loads of bad things to say about the way she treats employees.

On the bright side they do have a relatively new school and good facilities.

To be honest this is not a school I would work at unless I couldn't get a job anywhere else.

I think I will teach abroad for the next 25 years. I may go back to the USA for 2-3 years to add an admin credential to my certificate but as soon as I got it, and it was permanent, I'd head back overseas. When those 25 years are up, if I'm forced out due to age, I will probably retire abroad too.

I agree. With the job market the way it is there are a lot of good teachers available. New graduates are flooding the market every year and some of them are good too. Good schools are not going to negotiate salary. They are going to tell you who they are and throw down their package (salary, housing, insurance, etc) then leave it up to you to decide whether or not you are going to take it or hold out for something that you think is better but they aren't going to give you weeks to decide.

I work with a teacher that is always barking about 'if this school wants to keep me they will' do this and that. Every time he does that I laugh at him and tell him they aren't going to negotiate with him. They will thank him for the years and wish him luck. He signs that new contract every year and gets nothing that he tries to negotiate for.

Why would you want to work for a school that is going to negotiate this anyway? What if you thought you got a good deal only to find out several other teachers got a much better deal than you even if they were not nearly as good at the job?

After teaching in the USA in my 20's and abroad in my 30's I think it is safe to say that I'm going to spend the next 20-25 years teaching abroad then I might go home and work for another 20 years! That would put me in my early 80's!

[quote="heyteach"]Yes, definitely possible. My former school district recruited a lot of teachers from the Phillipines because there was such a shortage for that rural area. If you're a math or science teacher, or are willing to work in what's called an "underserved" area, you should get hired easily.[/quote]

I can confirm this. The state of Louisiana in particular hired over 50 Filipino teachers to teach math and science a few years ago.

In reply to what shadowjack said

1. Triple the amount of time it should take to get anything done and that will give you a good estimate of how long it will take in Kuwait.

2. This will happen frequently. Not only will you be brought to the front of the line but you can bet that the Kuwaiti's will walk to the front of lines that you are in and get served before you do.

3. Again, happens frequently.

4. Ever played the video game "Mario Kart?" That is driving in Kuwait in a nut shell.

Going to the dirty street shisha joints is great. All the shisha you can smoke and tea for about 1 KD. It cost 4-5 times that amount in the malls at the upscale joints.

Get out of Kuwait every time you have a long weekend or school break. I've been here several years and travel a lot.

You can save some coin in Kuwait but of the Arabian Gulf countries I'd rate it behind UAE, Oman, and Qatar but ahead of Saudi.

As long as you have a bachelor's degree you should be able to get a job teaching IN THAT SUBJECT AREA in Kuwait at one of the many private schools. You could also try to land a job as a supply teacher. Some schools have these although I'm not sure which ones.

[quote="intlskipper"]
I did end up getting the offer, but the day after that interview, I was able to land an interview at Al Bayan.....and was offered there too. I thought a lot about it and eventually decided to go with Al Bayan. They each had their pros and cons but eventually the cons for Al Bayan got dismissed in my head after talking to them more. Plus, UAS offered me a really low salary...at least for my opinion of what the salary should be in Kuwait. [/quote]

Congratulations. What will you be teaching?

[quote="PsyGuy"]@intlskipper

The first is that as a starter school in Kuwait, they cant promise you anything with any confidence. You might get the money and have to work 2 or 3 times as hard and you might just be forced to sign a new contract with lower benefits and terms or be fired.

Second, your principal is lying to you. No school in Kuwait could staff their whole school from the ground up on ONLY F2F interviews, unless any face will do. There is something else going on that may or may not have anything to do with you, but what you were told is just a saving face excuse.[/quote]

I'll go one step beyond what he says and say that working at any start up international school might not be such a good idea.

There is a chance that this principal hired for those positions in country or at a job fair and is, as Psyguy said, just saving face.

You wanted to know which schools in Kuwait I'd work for so I'll tell you in order. Al Bayan Bilingual School, Universal American School, American School of Kuwait, American International School, and possibly British School of Kuwait or New English School. I wouldn't work anywhere else here.