The International Schools Review Forum

Does anyone know anything about this?

I worked in Malaysia and the Malaysian Provident Fund was a real money maker for teachers.

What is the rate of return? Percent contributed by school?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

You cannot collect it until you are 60, you have to keep an open account in India in order to collect. These were 2 things explained to me. Basically, not the same as Malaysia.

Briz:
Did you teach in India?

Do you know what the rate of interest has been for India's Provident fund?

Any other ideas about Stonehill International School in Bangalore?

Thanks.

No foreign hire even thinks about the Provident fund. They have effectively made it uncollectable, unless you really have A lot invested (teaching couple with higher salary and 5 years etc.)

I put my Stonehill comments on here in another post. I do not work there, only have met a few people. They had a HUGE house cleaning this year. They will hire 25+ new teachers. Head of School has been mentioned to me as being respected by other HOS's. Salary has gone down. School used to be more "blond", but is opened up to admitting more local students. Huge recruiting budget this year (they went to A Lot of fairs!).

Biggest issue is being able to live in Bangalore. It is a city which used to be full of parks (it still has many), but is now UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Driving is horrible, but definitely is a mirror of how people act. It is not uncommon to be standing in line buying 2-3 items and have a man shove his way in front because he has 1 thing. If you call them out, they tend to run away embarrassed, but most people just accept it, it is possibly a caste thing, or a stay out of the way avoiding issues thing. Transfering money has to be done by the school, do not try to convert and carry it out, as you are restricted on how much you can convert. The red tape is endless, and you never know exactly what it is you need. Need a background check, go through 47 hoops, but there is no place to find out what those hoops are. If you do find out, it is almost guaranteed they will have changed by the time you get there. India is FRUSTRATION! India is DIRTY! India is many, many things, most are not fun or interesting. See a few temples, you are over it, see enough homeless dirty people with no shoes, you become immune to it, almost get hit by buses, cars, motorcycles, you just start to say you hate it. India is a place where most people who make it here find something that allows them to escape. I can see no reason to ever go back.

I taught at AISC (Chennai) a while back and we were not part of it. The expat folks got a separate "retirement" included in the paycheck. Never heard expat teachers talk of it. But you're right about Malaysia's fund... it has been a winner!

India is frustration and India is dirty and India is magnificent and India is generous and India is challenging. I can think of hundreds of reasons to go back. It is however, not for the faint-hearted. At best, you will love it and hate it.

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Under current law, it looks like US expats can not withdraw contributions from the India Provident Fund until they are 58 years old. At that point, they can choose one lump sum, or pension. This could change if the US and India sign a Totalization Pact. If signed, then US expats would be able to roll the fund out of India when they leave, but until then, it sits in India until you are 58.