Rebecca -

I am pretty sure that the Johannesburg American School is a DOD School. Have you tried the DOD Schools Web site. I cannot remember the address off the top of my head, but am sure you can find in on Yahoo.
Best Regards,

Carolyn

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I am living with my family in Johannesburg and have two brothers who attend AISJ. I can say it is on par with about any very good public school in the US, and if your kids do attend, you can be assured a good quality education. Facilities are not fabulous, but certainly good enough. Sometimes textbooks are in short supply. Field trips are very common and good way to see parts of South Africa.

One great thing is that classes have a maximum class size of 13, and many classes are no bigger than 3. Kids complain of course, because the teachers and administrators never miss a thing.

The problem is the money. It costs almost $20,000 for a high school student to attend. Considering that astronomical amount, the calibar of facilities, the textbook issue and calibar of schooling, one wonders where the money is going. For that amount, I would expect the school to be better than Eton in England and better than Lakeside in Seattle (both of which are very prestigous, very expensive, very elitist and very GOOD schools). However, AISJ comes nowhere close to attaining the calibar of those two examples, so I would say the school is not worth the amount of money.

If my parents were paying their own way, they would certainly opt for a good private South Africa school instead. But if you really need your kids to go to an American style educational system, it's the only option available.

It does lack a substantial South African population in the student body, which tends to make students insular and never see or experience life through South Africans. However, my brothers have met some of course, as they settle in. This is different from most international schools in Europe, which have sizable proportions of local students.

If you want more info, e-mail me at shaprosk@usc.edu.

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