Guatemala is a beautiful country. Guatemala City also has its charms. However, it has gotten incredibly dangerous over the course of the last few years. Having said that my friends there are still enjoying it.

I worked at the American School of Guatemala for two years. I enjoyed the experience and only left after my two year contract in order to get IB experience. Although not an IB school, I have heard that it has improved considerably over the years.

The Interamerican School was always considered tier 3.

Good luck!

Don't drink the water in Vietnam.

It's OK for brushing teeth and showering.

Vietnam and Saigon in particular are brilliant for a few years.

Good luck!

Did you say that you have a child? Apologies for not reviewing the thread...

If it's just you, and you are that interested in South America, then go for it.

If you are travelling with a child/children, take a pass. There are far too many other variables to consider...wait for AASSA, Search and/or ISS to come around for a shot at the better schools in the region for the 2013-2014 school year.

Good luck.

Yes, the Australian International School teachers get paid a percentage in Dong this year. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, will be paid entirely in Dong next year.

There are many teachers that are unhappy in Saigon. I can guarantee you though, that none of the AIS teachers are unhappy with their package. It is excellent for Saigon and the region in general.

Saigon South is the highest paying school in town.

BIS tends to hire younger teachers straight out of the UK who are way down the pay scale. This information comes directly from their deputy head. Like I said, totally for profit...

Venezuela is going through rough times to say the least...I don't mean to sound harsh but being in Caracas now is going to be a bit difficult. However, it can be a wonderful place and with a bit of work on your part could be a rewarding experience.

Since you mentioned that the embassy is in Altamira, I assume that you are Canadian or perhaps British. These embassies are in Altamira and la Castellana (next to Altamira) respectively. The US embassy is across the motorway. If you are not Canadian or a Brit, sorry about that.

I mention this because if you are Canadian, ECA might be a better fit. If you are a Brit, then the British School will be a better fit. Either school would work, but ECA is top tier not only for Caracas or Venezuela, but also globally speaking.

I would also recommend ECA because most consular families live close to this school in an area called Colinas de Valle Arriba. Lovely neighborhood with amazing flats and spectacular views. The commute from this area to ECA is only a couple of minutes. Better for the person working to have the commute into Altamira (on a good day, only a few minutes...on a bad day 1-2 hours) than the kids into school. Having said this, if you prefer the British School, it's in Altamira so if you chose to live in Altamira, then the commute will be minimal.

I would recommend the Valle Arriba Country Club. Many ECA families (both expat and local) have membership there. Very posh but provides plenty of space for kids to run around and play. Caracas doesn't really have many parks/areas for younger kids to hang out.

ECA has a very warm and welcoming community and there are always events being put on for families in and outside of school. The British School has a similar vibe, except that the families are primarily local and so might not be so keen to attend these types of events. So, in this regard, ECA is the way to go, too.

Good luck!

Cheers.

Yes, good point. There are two AIS's in town: the Australian International School (the one I wrote about) and the American International School. The latter is the low paying one. Teachers were also paid 10 days late last month. The school is falling apart (American IS).

BIS is tier one for Saigon (not even Vietnam if you compare it to UNIS Hanoi). They are pretty well established/organized, run quite a few quality programmes, have decent DP scores and have a balanced student population.

They are very much for profit and so can't really qualify as a tier one school globally speaking. The tier system is subjective at the best of times. However, I do feel that if there was one criterion that a school would have to meet it would be whether it's non-profit or not.

Hello.

The Australian International School has recently merged with ACG. The new school will be called AIS.

They pay as much, if not more than most of the schools in the city. The package for Saigon is excellent and couples with quite a bit of experience regularly save around US$35,000 a year. Singles can save a good amount, too. Housing and flights all included.

Yes, next year salaries will be paid entirely in Dong. This is the case with most schools in Saigon as of next year (BIS started paying entirely in Dong this year - 2012-2013).

Although AIS is well respected and they have a good mix of western expats (almost exclusively in the primary - secondary is about 30% western expat and 70% Asian - mainly Vietnamese) it is going through rough times. It is very much a for profit school.

I am presently in Saigon and my information is current.

UNIS Hanoi

British International School (Ho Chi Minh City)

Saigon South International School

Do not bother with any other school in this country. Amazing place...absolutely shameful schools.

Good luck.

Yes - do not get hopes down. Keep trying...good luck!

I worked in Latin America for over 10 years and studied at 2 international schools there as well. I was the child of a board member at one of these schools. I've visited 20+ schools in the region on PD and sports trips. I met perhaps one expat staff member in my experience who was fully bilingual and do not know of a single one of these schools that hire teachers who were specifically bilingual. Quite a few of the teachers spoke a bit of Spanish and many others learned the language while in LA.

I've met many expat as well as bilingual locals working as school psychologists.

I was never referring to selective IB programmes. I was referring to selective schools in general. That is why an average score of 38+ for this type of school is significant.

What type of school has a DP cohort of 100 students with only 2 taking exams? This is a ludicrous example. You clearly have never worked at a genuine DP school.

The THES, Lisbon Council and the OECD are pretty reliable sources for detailing the strengths of individual schools and local systems. Although works in progress and not without their faults, these are but a few of the highly respected and universally used listings.

Your comment about their being no basis for the claim that student success can be attributed to a school is laughable.

DP internal assessment is externally moderated. Any school worth its salt conducts extensive internal moderation on top of that – usually led by a staff member who is an examiner. Again, this shows that you have never worked at a genuine DP school.

DP scores explicitly show the quality of a school's educational programmes whether you like it or not. Who cares if the programme is incredibly selective? If a school has an average score of 38+ it would be foolish to say that it is not a 'good' school academically. Whether you want to work at that school or not is another issue.

I stated in my post that '[u]rankings[/u] of the universities students enroll in' is an indication of a school's successful educational programmes - not the random university acceptance rates for that school. If you have students consistently enrolling (and I don't mean one student getting accepted into 5 top unis) in the top 20 universities in the world then your school is doing something right. Again, if you want to work at a school like that it's up to you.

I don't understand PG's claims about students only taking 3-4 exams in the DP - only the exams that they will do well in. This constitutes the minority of students at top international schools and those scores don't go towards diploma averages anyway.

The weight question is a non-issue. A DP score stands by itself. Weights have nothing to do with it at all.

I don't think it's possible to come up with a definitive list. For once I agree with PG.

I also agree that compensation and work environment should be on everyone's list. So, again I agree with PG. However, there are certain subtleties that most educators do not consider. There are many ways to determine if a school is right for you. Here are some of the factors teachers could consider in order to decide if they will enjoy working at a school or not.

Is it non-profit. I don't believe that a school can be worthwhile if the bottom line is money.

One could use IB scores (for DP schools). Often times tiers are not aligned with facts. I guarantee that quite a few of the schools on the lists in these posts would not be up there if we took a look at their recent performance.

Ranking of the universities students enroll in is also an indicator of success.

You could also take a look at how well articulated the curriculum is all the way through. Is there a fully thought out and successful continuum? Is it even a documented curriculum? You'd be surprised to find how many of the top tier schools on the lists don't actually have anything written down!

How about taking a look at a school's pastoral programme? Are students provided with emotional and social support in order to succeed? Many 'top tier' schools in my experience are quite selective and either reject outright weaker candidates or weed them out leading into the DP. So, does the school have programmes in place to help weaker academic students?

If the school isn't selective, what does it do to keep school-wide expectations high? Schools in Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai, for example, can be very selective. Schools in other cities, like in Africa and South America, can't because there are only one or two schools in town. This means that when a family moves in from overseas, the schools pretty much have to allow the children in.

Is the school leaning more toward a British or US style of education? I only see a handful of British international schools on the list...how about considering if you want a full IB Continuum school?

So, lots of things to consider...

I would have to say that Escuela Campo Alegre continues to be a top school for South America. They have excellent programmes, manage to keep all stake holders involved and generally happy and they recently upped salaries and finished a new addition to an already fantastic facility. They are also non-selective and continue to have excellent DP scores which allows their graduates to go onto great universities.

I've been teachin internationally for almost 15 years. The package info on every school I have worked at has been innacurate. This is also the case for the school we'll be joining in August (after seeing the contract and signing).

I was told by Search that this is the school's responsibility. Doesn't make much sense to me...

After reading these posts, I think there is a bit of confusion regarding COGNITA and which schools they own in Saigon.

Saigon South International School is owned by the Phu My Hung Corporation and have nothing to do with COGNITA.

International School Ho Chi Minh City is owned by COGNITA and has been completely destroyed by the company. There were once the leading educational institution in the city. Now they are very near third tier status (management going back on their word, teachers walking out, zero transparency, unreasonable teaching loads, cut backs on resources, etc).

International School Saigon Pearl is also owned by COGNITA. It is a third tier primary school.

Cheers.