The International Schools Review Forum

Since working in the public school systems of UAE require a teaching certification and a significant amount of experience, do international schools count it as relevant experience?

I have a friend that is moving there. She has her certification and a masters in education and said that the public schools were difficult to get in.

It would depend what the job is, at least if my school were looking at it. If you're teaching your own classes, etc, that would count. If you're doing some of the other things, like advising other teachers or pseudo-admin stuff, it might not count depending on what job you'd be applying for with us.

Some of those UAE public school jobs are worthwhile career-wise. Others are well-paid nonsense.

Thank you for your response. That's also good to know. Since the public schools in UAE are not international schools, where do people look to find jobs working for them?

I have seen a few on TeachAway. Does anyone know anywhere else?

Tieonline, Search, Joyjobs, are all other sites...

Oh ok thanks. Yeah I know of those. I just thought they only listed international school positions. Not public schools in other countries too.

You will also find a lot of public school positions on ESL sites like Daves ESL cafe.

I agree in part with Sid, normally the experience would count, but its difficult for an admin to really discern what a teacher did in a UAE municipal school. their are staff with "teacher" titles that do no teaching, and resume inflation is pretty common.

its not an issue very often as most municipal school teachers from the UAE (and the region) are not native english speakers, and they wouldnt make the screening requirements at an IS. the vast majority of western teachers wouldnt be interested in the type of package that would come from a municipal school in such a region.

An exception i had once was a ELL teacher who was trying to transition into a subject specific classroom and had a year of experience in a bilingual primary classroom. Though they didnt make the short list, i gave them credit for the year.

Take a look at some of the posts about ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council). They basically put teachers in public schools, and pay good money for it too (they have to or no-one would do it). They also require a very high standard of qualifications and experience, though quite why is beyond my understanding because from everything I've heard (and I've heard a lot from people that have done these jobs) so, so much of the job is about classroom management that they might as well just hire behaviour management specialists. If I remember rightly, the Times Education Supplement (www.tesjobs.co.uk) had a few ADEC jobs posted not too long ago.

Whether working at these schools would count as international school experience or not, I really don't know, but one thing is for sure; if you stick out your contract then you are a person with resolve, and I think employers in the region know it.

Oh wow thanks everyone for the responses. It for sure gives me a better idea on if I should apply to those schools.