About Adnor

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Some Forum Posts:

Saudi Arabia: PRIVATE TUITION:

I have taught year 3 and year 4 at an international school, British Curriculum in Riyadh. I will return from the US on September 2nd. I'm currently teaching privately and I usually meet with parents and students by the first week of September to assess students' skills and needs and make up the schedule for the year. If you are interested please email me directly at ryaghen@gmail.com

Saudi Arabia: Moving to Riyadh August 2014:

Hi Dee75Dee, May I know what school you'll be teaching at? Living in Al Hamra is very expensive unless the school pays for it, it would be hard to afford on teacher's salary. I can give you some pointers on living in Riyadh as I've been living here for 11 years with my husband and kids, and have taught at a small international school.

Saudi Arabia: Seeing a Doctor:

Going to a hospital to see a General physician and or specialist for routine care in Saudi Arabia is the norm. Rarely you will see a private practice with just a couple of doctors, instead the normal set up is a hospital outpatient section that acts as a private practice or a smaller clinic setting. Don't expect to have that relationship your'e accustomed to with your primary care doctor. In Saudi Arabia preventative medicine or primary care does not really exist. Most Saudi go to see a doctor when they are really sick and even then, advise and instructions to the patients on how to care for themselves are rarely followed. by the patient. Often they rely on fate! The doctors are either from the same culture coming from various Arabic countries with similar beliefs and or from elsewhere and have grown accustomed to the patients' mind set. Don't be surprised if you have to pull information out of you doctor instead of him' or her being the advocate for your health. Also their bedside manners can leave you yearning for a compassionate doctor. Don't be surprised if a doctor walks in and asks you, 'wut u wunt?" There is also an accepted 'arrogance' displayed by doctors especially those trained in Lebanon . They seem tho believe that if they appear approachable then they may be judged as less than excellent doctors who have earned the right to act like a famous movie star.-even during the medical exam! Unless the doctor is from a Western country and she or he cares to have that patient/doctor relationship. Good luck .

Saudi Arabia: Confused:

Hi Confused, hope I can be of help. After living here with my kids and teaching at various schools I have some information for you to help you decide on schooling. First of all, will your company give you any educational allowance for your kids? The schools you've mentioned are around 25,000 SR per year. ( could be a bit more or a bit less). Manarat has a very strong Islamic study component in their curriculum. Manarat also has the British and the American curriculum beyond 8th grade, what you would call in the U.K year 9. That is another thing you must be aware of, that they use 'year' and 'grade' interchangeably and that could present real challenges to both parents and students if they are placed in the wrong grade. Rawad school is similar to Manarat on every level. As all private international schools in Riyadh do, both schools mentioned have issues with teachers, especially in the boys' section which suffers the most as it is no longer allowed for a female teacher to teach boys beyond 1st or 2nd grade. Male teachers don't get paid very well at such schools and consequently they are not motivated to teach, often, very often, there are always teachers quitting during the school year, at best they stay and if they are bitter and angry with the school administration and the ministry of education, which is often the case, the kids really get the short end of the stick. expect your kids' homework to come home without any feedback or corrections. You'll see check marks just for the teacher to prove to admin that they are 'checking' the kids' work. Don't get me wrong, the curriculums are excellent, but finding and retaining proper teachers is the biggest challenge for these schools that have parallel curriculums to the main British International School and the American International school as well as the main French International school. Whereas these 3 schools mentioned hire the vast majority of their teachers from their perspective countries with very good salaries, benefits, and housing, the other schools hire locally whereby the salaries are a fraction of those compared to the 3 main schools. Also, the majority of the teachers in the private 'parallel' school may have a university degree in their area of specialty, they are often not trained or certified teachers and that is another big problem with this system. If you get education allowance from your company, you should have your kids go to the British International school as that would be the most familiar system for them. The majority of their students are from Muslim backgrounds coming from the U.K. It is expensive though. Best of luck.

Date Joined:

4/15/2014

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