The International Schools Review Forum

Why is he sending us this crap?

Dear Candidates,

Please see the attached link to a document with information about a new school start up in Saudi Arabia. This school is a fascinating new project in a new the Economic City, being established by King Abdullah, and will be managed by the GEMS Educational group, who are already operating many schools in the region. I had a chance to visit with Mark Johnston, the Principal leading this effort, while he was with us here in Bangkok at the Search Bangkok Spring Fair. I came away intrigued by this opportunity, and excited to assist Mark with his staffing. As you can see in the document linked to this message, they are looking for many teachers in a variety of subject areas, so this is a great opportunity to get in on this very interesting project at the ground level.

If you are interested in learning more about the project, or connecting with Mark, please reply to this e-mail, and let me know. I will be assisting with some pre-screening for Mark and helping him identify candidates for further consideration.

Sincerely,
Michael Williams
Executive Vice President
Search Associates

I think everyone did, what can I say its the middle east, and a particularly repressive part of the middle east. Its not easy to recruit there.

.isr

What i've heard is that the GEMS school negotiated a premium (higher) placement fee per teacher to really market this school. They are going to have a REALLY hard time staffing this school.

Setting aside all my usual complaints about the middle east, there specific problems are:

1) Lack of infrastructure: There is nothing there. Its a new city, so there isnt a lot stores, markets etc. "Commercial night life is almost nonexistent." What they dont mention is that just about everything else is practically non existent, and its 60 miles from the nearest real city (Jeddah).

2) This is Saudi arabia, meaning by law no alcohol, you can only practice islam, woman have very restrictive rights. I cant imagine a lot of western woman that this kind of life would appeal too. I cant imagine a lot of single guys who would find much to do?

3) They say their salary is competitive but $20K-$40K is not competitive for desert work. One of the strongest motivators people have for going to places in the ME like this is because the money is SO good. Considering the amount of work your going to have to do this is well below market.

4) Lack of experience: From my experience this school is going to end up being staffed by a bunch of newbie teachers, which means there isnt going to be many if any veterans for inexperienced teachers to fall back to for mentoring. Add that to the already chaotic experience of a new school, that isnt very organized.

5) Enrollment: They dont have a lot of students (50-70) spread over 8 grads thats less the 10 kids per grade. Meaning every student is very important financially.

6) Workload: Its going to go without saying and at least they are honest about it but startups are a lot of work. Your going to be doing a lot of preps, and I wouldnt be surprised if multiple departments were run by a single teacher responsible for all grade levels either directly as the teacher or in a support capacity. Your never going to really get any down time in this kind of position. Imagine the preps for all math and science for grades 6-8 for the whole week at a time, does that sound like an attractive picture to anyone?

7) There isnt even a school yet, all those photos are design mock ups. Nothing ever looks as good in reality as the brochure.

Read this post before having dinner with people who used to work in Saudi Arabia. Turns out Economic City is on the coast - this might appeal to some. It is also the site of the latest "tallest tower in the world". It's planned to be a mile high - will believe it when I see it.

I'd never work in Saudi due to the controlling environment but others might see it as a place to get started.

Tallest Tower, right how big it the "Antenna" going to be? I hate when they claim a building it the tallest and 1/3 of the height is the building antenna.