The International Schools Review Forum

Which are the best? How bad is the pollution? THANKS!!

In my humble opinion, Jakarta International School (JIS) is the best, although NJIS is decent, also.

Does anyone know about Australian International School in Jakarta?

I am currently working in Jakarta at JIS. It has a stunning package, good (although aging) facilities and delightful students. Although the long time staff consider JIS to be a truly great school, I find the teachers and admin to be very conservative and change resistant. What's more, contrary to what I'd heard on the circuit before I got here, the school is facing financial constraints, so do not expect brand new carpets, bountiful PD budgets and new computers in your room.

Having said that, I am happy working here.

Living in Jakarta is not always easy - first year teachers are housed about 30-40 minutes away from school. The traffic is appalling, and the city can be very polluted.

However, the locals are absolutely delightful. I've worked in various countries and have never met a more generous and tolerant group of people.

Working here is not for the faint hearted - you need to be aware not only of the threat of terrorism, but also of bird flu and dengue fever.

To be honest, the only one that really concerns me at this stage is dengue - there are LOTS of mosquitoes in Jakarta! However, the terrorism or bird flu threat could 'blow up' (pardon the pun) at any moment and cause enormous disruption (including school closures).

Other schools - The British School has a terrific reputation. NJIS and the Australian and NZ schools tend to have this reputation of being the schools expelled JIS students go to. This is probably unfair; however, their packages, results, facilities and turnover rates indicate they are more difficult places to work at than JIS or BIS.

Hope this is of some use.

Thanks, Hallier!! Are you able to tell me more about the Aussie school, specifically? Can you tell the difference (approx) in salaries between JIS and AIS? Of the three others you mentioned (NZIS, Japanese, AIS), would you say AIS is the best?

Thank you so much!!

Hi,

I worked at the Australian International School in Jakarta nearly 6 years ago and it was terrible. It was my first overseas post and they tried to take advantage of all of us who had never taught overseas before. The only good thing that came out of working at this school, is that I met my husband there.

I would say if it is still owned by Penny and Derick then things wouldn't have changed. We don't even include it on our CV, it was that awful.

Most of the teachers working at the school are women whose husbands are on huge contracts and they don't have anything better to do. There is only so many facials and massages one can get ...so they teach! The teachers were lovely to work with but the Owners were a nightmare.

Where do I start???

I was told-

-that it was easy for a single woman to live in Jakarta- It is not.
-finding accommodation for a single woman was easy to find- It wasn't and I had to stay at the Owners house until the single male teachers who had been given a house to share, felt sorry for me and let me stay on a mattress on their floor! I was eaten alive every night by mosquitoes and that was with the mosquito net over me. There was also no hot water in the bathroom that I shared.

We were expected to do visa runs to Singapore as they had problems getting work permits.

Salary sounded good, but came nowhere near JIS and when it came to payday they decided to change the pay structure and timing of it so we were at a loss. They gave some teachers airfares to Jakarta from Aus and not others, but quickly reinbursed the teachers who missed out once they were confronted with it.

Our house was broken into and we were all robbed including passports and it wouldn't surprise us if the school had something to do with it! We got no support from the school- just a "Oh yeah, we should have told you that you need to hire a security guard".

I couldn't walk anywhere on my own- not safe in the area the school is located and where we lived.

The Indonesian teacher assistants hated Australians and many of the Aussie Parents were just horrible to the Indonesian staff, so I could understand why. A grenade was thrown over the wall of the school just before I arrived- luckily no one was hurt!!

The Principal was sacked during our stay for sticking up for us (new Internationally hired teachers).

All this happened in less than 3 months. Out of the 4 teachers who were hired at the same time- 3 of us got on a plane and left giving notice when we arrived safely out of the country!! The 1 person who did say was rumoured to have just been released from prison in Aus and couldn't teach anywhere else!! We worked with some unusal characters to say the least!

Sorry for being such a negative post and I hope I haven't shattered your dreams. Who knows it may have changed!?! I am talking 6 years ago!

If you do go- just be careful who you talk to- there were Spys everywhere.

Goodluck!

Dear Guest - Thank you for your honest reply. If you feel comfortable contacting me, I set up an email account that I could post on this board so we could protect our anonymity.

For many, many reasons it is important that I get some more information from you, or anyone else who can give me some.... Here is the email address I set up: AIShelp@yahoo.com

Thank you so so so much for your help!!

I read your post about the Australian school from 2006.
A similar thing is happening at the Netherlands International school in Jakarta at the moment.
In 2008 a new (Australian) principal came. While at first things looked promising, it soon became clear that things had changed for the worst.
Just in one year these things happened: new teachers were made promises but soon discovered these were empty ones. They had to shop themselves for studymaterial for the students. Salaries were refused to pay to them on the most ridiculous grounds.
One of the teachers asked too many questions about the principal and discovered that the principal started to spread lies about her.
Very good schoolassistants would have been fired by the principal if the parents had not intervened. Principal said they were too expensive (Rp.4 million, she wanted assistants for Rp. 1,5 million, a domestic help salary).
Policies written in the schoolguide are ignored. And now to top it off the principal wields the divide and conquer philosophy. Spies are everywhere and nobody feels they can trust fellow teachers.
The principal even has started an mud slinging offensive against parents who dare to speak up and threatens with legal actions!
The board consists of members who are either powerless or unwilling to lift a finger.
Be very careful with this school!