The International Schools Review Forum

I have been approached by a school from Qatar, and I am wondering about quality of life and basically any inside information on the country and people.

Thanks

Be careful. There are some schools in Qatar you want to run from - screaming - as fast as you can. Then again, there are some lovely ones.

Have you checked anything out on the paid side of ISR or any of the other school review sites?

My past 5 years have included teaching awesome kids, living in a new compound, taking trips to the Holy Lands and Africa, and saving some cash.

Saying that I would only work at 1 or 2 schools. ASD or Doha college.

Living here is a lot like Deadwood SD in 1869... its a boom town. Life is what you make it.

Two ISs for a whole country is not an endorsement. There are awesome students without having to put up with the ME , and you can travel to anywhere from anywhere.

There's not much to do in Qatar - basically you are talking about the city Doha - which is a building site. The rest of the country is a sandpit. In Doha there are shopping malls, and the corniche and that is it. Cinemas are allowed although films are often censored and there is one government run booze store. There are plenty of western style supermarkets. Cost of living is increasing.

Your school will determine how tolerable your life life there is - there are a lot of bad and very mediocre schools. Read the reviews. Where your accommodation is can also make a difference. You want housing included and not an allowance. You want to be as close to the school as possible to avoid commuting. The standard of driving there is abysmal. If you don't drive you have to rely on taxis and depending on where you live they can be hard to get - especially at peak times.

Health care is heavily subsidised and very good.

Tutoring is not usually allowed but there is a lot of it and the parents want it. You can easily double your salary and then some which certainly passes the time. I earned more from tutoring than I did from my day job there. Qatar has a sponsor and exit visa system. Your employer is your sponsor and in almost all cases when you cease working for them your visa is cancelled and you have to leave the country for 2 years before returning. You can't get out of the country without an exit visa from your employer - try and you get detained at the airport!

Qatari kids are spoilt and lazy - especially the ruling Al Thanis. Some schools are little more than holding pens for them until they get married off. Expat kids in a largely Qatari school might find it a lonely experience.

The country is quite corrupt. Bribery and coercion are widespread as is racism. Non-white expats can expect to be treated quite differently from white folks. I've never heard the N-word used so freely as when I worked in Qatar. Drivers, nannies and maids are regarded as donkeys - beasts of burden - and have a pretty miserable time. The Qataris are well off but still manage to look miserable even when shopping in high end stores. Many leave the country in the baking hot summer months for saner climates elsewhere.

That said I made good coin there.

I concur with nomad68, thats a pretty accurate description.

I found out that the school in Qatar is offering me 18,500 QR a month as a HOD position. With flights, and housing given to me. Is this a good deal? Will I be able to save. I was actually expecting a lot more from the middle east. Is this pay common?

Thanks

Honeymustard

Definitely a good offer, and you can definitely save, assuming you don't go expat crazy and blow it all on brunches and monthly holidays.

@honeymustard

Thats under scale, its fine for a class teacher appointment but not an HOD, 20K QR is low for an HOD, especially for having to put up with living in Qatar.

As I've done before, I'll state now that this is my last comment in this thread. I don't like shouting matches with PG.
With almost 15 years in the region, including plenty of those in Qatar, including being the one making the offers to a fair handful of candidates over the years... it is my considered opinion that the offer you've received is on the good side. Definitely not on the low side. Actually on the high side for an HOD in Qatar, as a starting salary. You might find some existing HODs doing better after staying for some years and getting nice annual raises, as they tend to do, but this is a fine offer.
PG admits to something like two weeks in Egypt, the closest he's come to Qatar. And while he often seems to have useful information (incredibly frustrating sometimes when he's right), one problem with PG is that he balances his rightness with a minority of cases in which he's just wrong, but insists he is right. Makes it very hard to know what to do with his info. As a poster in search of answers, what to do, what to do?
You can trust me on this question. I've been accused on this site of being a sycophant and an admin type (apparently that's an insult), but not of playing loose with factual info.
Or perhaps some other posters will chime in with their opinions on the question, and we can try to reach quorum. Majority may not determine right, but it can be comforting.

Sid is also an admin, in the ME and sits on the side of the negotiating table that benefits by offering and keeping salaries at low as they can. No admin was ever disciplined for paying less than they had too. Of course its "good" for the IS they are getting an HOD cheap and can work you to death as a justified TLR duty, all that and you have to live and go home in Qatar doing it.

What Sid has conveniently neglected to leave out is that HODs in the ME are teachers with a lot of added production (documentation) responsibility, its not doing 1/2, 2/3, or 3/4 of one job and the rest of the other its doing a full ONE and a HALF jobs and getting paid much less for the extra half. If a class teacher is getting paid 15K - 16K QR and your doing 50% more work you should be compensated at LEAST 25% (if not 50%) more coin which is loose change for ME/oil coin. The rational to ME ISs is that your "lost" compensation is in your "title" which for an HOD isnt worth anything outside the ME.

Of course its easy and not above an admin to say the admin is right and the IT is wrong,their view is only listen to admins, admins know everything and if you dont follow their advice they will doom your career. Never trust sales, even if youre buying snake oil.

Why are 'admin' people so bad? I assume you're including heads of department in with that category? That makes me an admin in the UK and I frankly couldn't give a flying fig about salaries for people I employ. Two reasons for that - one is I have no say in them anyway and the second is I'd be more concerned with getting the right person rather than saving what is in the grand scheme of things a small amount of money. You do sound a bit like a discount Arthur Scargill with your admin comments at times.

I typically refer to senior admin such as principals and HOSs when referring to "admin". Those individuals who have supervisory and hiring/firing authority.

The salary quoted seems ok for Qatar in my experience. I left after 4 years and reached $50K USD a year but I know the school I was at was bringing in new staff on much lower salaries (around $30K USD a year). You were considered lucky to reach year 4 or 5 before the school would not renew your contract so they could hire a cheaper replacement. Tutoring was forbidden but widespread and you could easily make enough to match 50% to 100% of your salary if you put in the hours. It passed the time because Doha is a pretty dull place and crazy hot/humid in the summer.