AIS Egypt has reasonably good facilities, a great group of teachers, even a decent financial office, but this is a VERY difficult place for a Western student that doesn't speak Arabic. While the sign out front says "American International School" it's essentially an Egyptian Private School as soon as you step through the doors. The curriculum is American and the classes are conducted in English, but the near impossibility of getting the 98% Egyptian student population to speak English leads naturally to the marginalization of the "International" component. The student culture within the school is of the opinion that any Egyptian caught speaking English to another Egyptian is 'pretentious'. The obvious result of this is that the students don't learn the language and the standards of student work remains at a very low level.
While I agree that for a true 'Egyptian' experience AIS might be a more authentic school, with great opportunities to meet Egyptians and experience their culture, that isn't necessarily a positive attribute when trying to gain a quality education.

The complaints of a 'worker shortage' is not unique to international teaching. Computer programmers and engineers have been hearing media reports of 'high-tech worker shortages' for years. And yet, rather than employ the ready supply of North American programmers at a livable wage, companies instead choose to export the work to lower paid countries. What industry is actually lamenting is the shortage of workers that they can exploit at a lower wage than their education should dictate. If parents would let the schools replace us with Indian teachers, they would. There is no teacher shortage, they will appear out of the woodwork as soon as wages become worth the difficulty of living in an undeveloped country. I've never heard the UN complain that they simply can't find employees willing to go to Egypt for USD 70,000 a year. Simply put, wages have not risen to match the inflation caused by the drop in the American dollar. A twenty percent depreciation in one year in any profession would cause people to leave in droves. Short-sighted profit-driven schools will see the exchange rate benefit of tuition vs salaries as a potential windfall...and then ask "Where did all the teachers go?" Gee, if they could just entice a few more 1st year teachers over to work for peanuts all of their problems would be solved. The international teaching circuit is looking more and more like ESL in Taiwan all the time. Except for a few long standing schools, the professionalism is over. It's 'a warm body in the classroom' until wages match inflation.
I'll finish my contract and then go home.

First informing all of us that you have worked in ESOL schools for ten years and then describing proprietary teachers as "second class critters" leads me to question both your species as well as your intelligence. Please do tell, are you a critter? Or are you one of those 'First Class' teachers of the not-for-profit schools?
Yes, ESOL is a for-profit organization. I have worked for them for 5 years and have found that they are reasonably fair but frequently petty. They try to be professional in a not particularly professional field but sometimes have trouble remembering that they employ Westerners for their ability to think critically and question assumptions. But that could be said of every Arab run organization. They aren't the best, they aren't the worst...and I've never met a teacher that wasn't fully bipedal. In fact some of us are reasonably well educated...

If teachers continue to sign contracts with unethical and abusive schools there will be no incentive for them to improve their behaviour. Do you give high marks to students that don't do the work? If you did, would they improve their performance? No, of course not.

How much is your education and professionalism worth to you?

Avoid this place like the plague. Signing a contract with them will confirm the wide spread belief that the pool of teachers is endless and therefore free to be abused.

"As long as the school gives benefits that keep teachers in the income class they expect- they'll come. "

That seems to be how some schools are rationalizing the fact that salaries haven't changed much in 10 years. "Well, the cost of living is much cheaper than in North America" What they don't mention is that you'll be living like a local labourer if you follow the guidelines they provide, not a middle class teacher.

The entire middle east is experiencing extreme inflation. In Egypt, where I am, it is approx 25% this year alone. It has affected everything from the price of chicken to flights out of the country. Our managements response was to increase tuition by about 15%. Salaries? Not a dime more. The attitude seems to be that as long as teachers will sign-up, why bother? From what I have seen over the past few years, the international circuit is in a state of serious decay. The middle career teachers (in their 30's and 40's) are leaving in droves and being replaced by first year teachers and 'double dippers', retired teachers collecting a pension from home who just need enough money to cover green fees in a warmer climate. The schools will survive, but the quality is going to suffer. First year teachers can be great if supported, but the 'double dippers' are too burnt out to bother.

Here in Cairo we're getting hit three ways. As all Canadian teachers know our dollar is now at par with the USD so what we're trying to save is worth less and less. The USD is dropping against all other currencies so travel and living is getting far more expensive and to top it all off inflation on basic food stuffs etc. in Egypt is running at about 20%. Many say more like 50%. Is there a COLA adjustment? Yah, right. There hasn't been a significant pay increase here in ten years. Teachers simply make less and less every year. Teachers are an endless commodity right? Not for long...

You would think that the increasing cost of living might eventually lead to a shortage of teachers willing to live in poverty (or at least nowhere near middle class) while they teach overseas. But it hasn't happened yet. Wages are stuck at mid-eighties rates all over the circuit while the drop in the American dollar has made the situation much worse. In addition, the Canadian dollar is now at 90 cents while our government is reworking non-residence status in an attempt to get their hands on our ever dwindling wages. Why do we still show up at job fairs? Obviously those that are over here to save money soon won't, it makes less and less fiscal sense every year. I can't speak for the Americans on this but chances are you could make as much money as a sub back in Canada as you can teaching at most schools overseas. It seems that the teacher supply depends more and more on first year teachers (primarily Canadian) who can't get positions back home and American teachers who are trying to escape their weapon and metal detector public school culture. Mid-career teachers with options are all trying to get out. I don't see the school owners raising wages any time soon, it's much easier to accept a drop in the quality of education. First year teachers can be motivated and excellent educators, but they need balancing with age and experience. So until the provincial governments start to decrease the number of education grads, which they won't as the oversupply helps to keep down teacher union wage demands, or until Americans suddenly start paying teachers a living wage and give up guns, the supply of overseas teachers will never dwindle. The schools will just get worse and the teachers less affluent.

In case you didn't get the memo...CCRA has changed the rules. After a lot of research on this topic, it seems that our friendly tax man isn't so friendly after all. The 'two year rule' is over. As of 2001 new rules came into effect that put greater emphasis on ties rather than time. So even if you have been overseas for 8 years or so, you could still be in for a very expensive surprise on your return to Canada. You know that 1986 Civic you had parked in your brother's driveway, well, that's a secondary tie and counts against you. Driver's license? Another tie. Passport (!!!??? This one is new!!) another tie. A storage space with that kayak that you didn't really want to sell? Another tie. A bank account in Canada that you make your student loan payments from? Another tie. Woops, over the limit. You owe. How much? Who knows. As other posters have mentioned the rules are ill-defined and intentionaly gray. I get the feeling it's based more on a "tax payer's" ability to fight it in a court than the actual strength of the ties. But it's still the early days. Changes made in 2001 don't work their way through returning Canadians, submitted returns, penalties assessed, court appeals etc... for a few years. So the results are just being made public now. And it doesn't look good. I don't mean to panic anybody but with a summer coming up this might be a good time to clean up some loose ends. Cancel bank accounts (or atleast make sure they are in non-resident status so withholding tax of 25% is assessed on interest (interest? what interest?)) Sell that car. Apply for a driver's license in your teaching country and cancel the Canadian one. Sell your kayak and cancel the storage room. Cancel all magazine subscriptions in your name (I'm actually serious on this one). Give an overseas address to everyone that sends you mail. Even MEC. (maybe you can order a new kayak...)

What we really need is some pissed off doctors returning to Canada from Saudi with huge holdings and the motivation to fight. Some friendly precedents would do us teachers a world of good. The chances of one of us having the funds to fight are government are, well, less good.

Us Canadians sure do fear the long and greedy arm of our government.

I plan to spend the summer in Nova Scotia this year and would like to buy a car (I looked into long term rentals and it's too expensive). I understand that residency is somewhat of a point system, too many ties and it's pay-up, but does anyone have any idea as to how dangerous it would be to buy and insure a car?

In response to syriaman.
I would say that it is then the responsibility of the current teaching staff to stand up for their school/administration by posting their own opinions. There will always be unprofessional teachers who attempt to bring down an administrator in response to some perceived injustice. The review process requires many voices. Make the staff aware of the statements and invite them to post their own, good or bad. The truth shall emerge through consensus.

Oops...Grammar...I stand corrected. I meant to do that. Yah. That's it.

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that all good reviews are therefore written by Admin. I too have worked at good schools that deserve good reviews, in fact I'm working at one now, and have written a review to that effect. I would also encourage teachers who are happy with their placement to say so. This is far more valuable information that yet another gripe by a habitual malcontent. The good schools need to be supported in order to encourage those that are less so to improve their standings in the international teaching community. Too many administrators dismiss ISR as simply a posting board for negativity, which, unfortunately, it often is. The teachers that don't inform other teachers of the GOOD schools are partly to blame for this. However...there are some truely pathetic schools that teachers need to be warned of. False reviews by those in charge of these schools is limiting the effectiveness of ISR and the value of the information it contains.

I've been seeing a lot of reviews lately that are clearly written by administration. Please, if you are teaching at a school and you know that your administration has posted a false review, post a rebuttal! While this may seem petty and childish, it is also necessary. ISR is only as useful as the information posted on it, and the very concept upon which this site is based is being threatened by a few unprofessional and apparently delusional administrators. If you are one of the administrators mentioned and are reading this...Please don't be tempted to write a false review. It is simply too obvious, and frankly, kind of pathetic. If you were capable of thinking and sounding like a teacher, chances are you wouldn't be getting so many bad reviews in the first place. Yes, Narmer American College, that means you. Your grammer is most certainly not the product of a teaching professional. (and note the rating for the local attitude towards foreigners...projecting are we?)

Yes, I certainly hope the competition encouraged by ISR serves to raise the overall standards of Int. Schools. I am constantly amazed at the stories of incompetently managed schools that manage, year after year, to attract a new batch of 'educated professionals' to fill their vacancies at pathetically low salaries. As long as there is a bottomless pool of applicants there is no incentive to improve conditions, both for teachers and students. Even at the best schools the pay rates seem to have become frozen at mid-eighties salaries.