The International Schools Review Forum

I want to teach in Ecuador, maybe Cuenca or Quito. Can anyone offer input or recommendation for the best schools to aim for? Thanks

Colegio Americano de Quito, or Academia Cotopaxi. CAQ is a full-bore IB school; they will train. Cotopaxi pays better but you work a lot harder--lots of evening and weekend activities.

Thanks Heyteach! I'll look into them.

Ecuador is an amazing country. I taught there several years ago at Cotopaxi and loved it. We had a great faculty and you worked hard but it was worth it.

Colegio Americano is definitely less work - I had a friend there who had one prep as a HS teacher (vs. 3 or 4 at Cotopaxi) and a 5th grade teacher with 8 students and hours of prep time each day while her kids were in ESL class (this was 5 or 6 years ago). It seemed like Americano had more new, young teachers - they were definitely payed quite a bit less. So depends on what you're looking for.

I have a friend who is teaching now at Colegio Americano and she said the Minstry of Education is cracking down on private schools. They've had to work a lot of extra days this year and even some Saturdays and aren't sure about the end of the year and they're not getting a lot of communication about what's going on or being compensated for it - I would ask about this and about contract days.

Cricket, thank you for the information. I certainly will contact them. I would love to teach in Ecuador, buy a little land, and retire there.

Roundtrip

Im thinking of moving to British School of Quito for a job. Any ideas about what its like now, with the dollar currency?

People have told me that Quito is just a big, busy city, but they all love Cuenca. I'm going there this June to check out the town as a possible retirement home. I retired from teaching in the US. My last day will be the end of this school year. I am going to look for some part-time hours teaching English in Cuenca. Gosh, it's great to approach retirement.

I worked at CAQ over 10 years ago and loved it. It was my first IB gig and pretty stress free.

They pay considerably less than Cotopaxi but the reduced workload made up for it.

In the two years I worked there the school had 100 and 91 percent pass rates and the average DP score was several points above Cotopaxi's.

I was not to impressed with Quito but Ecuador is pretty amazing.

An excellent introduction to the MYP and DP world. If money isn't an issue, an excellent place to start you international teaching/IB career.

Suerte

I worked at CAQ over 10 years ago and loved it. It was my first IB gig and pretty stress free.

They pay considerably less than Cotopaxi but the reduced workload made up for it.

In the two years I worked there the school had 100 and 91 percent pass rates and the average DP score was several points above Cotopaxi's.

I was not to impressed with Quito but Ecuador is pretty amazing.

An excellent introduction to the MYP and DP world. If money isn't an issue, an excellent place to start you international teaching/IB career.

Suerte

Yes... please research diligently before moving to Ecuador to teach. The current government, including the ministry of education, is making life hell for teachers. My wife is from Ecuador and her sister is a teacher in Quito at a private school. They have basically taken lots of vacation time away, she has to work on Saturdays, and that's just the beginning. Correa was just re-elected so I don't see this changing any time soon. This is why we are not going to live in Ecuador for quite some time.

There are no reviews for the British school on the paid side - just an old director's review (and I read those with a pinch of salt!)
I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who knows more about it, or who has lived in Quito relatively recently.