Does anyone have information about Narmer American College ?
What is housing like ?
What is it like to live in Cairo ?
Thanks.
Egypt ? Narmer American College
-
Guest 2
NARMER AMERICAN COLLEGE
See other postings about NARMER. It is owned by a wealthy Egyptian family and there is little discipline. There are some good teachers there...and some real flakes.
Egypt is a very nice country and the people are wonderful!
Egypt is a very nice country and the people are wonderful!
-
John
-
milo
life in Egypt
I lived in Egypt for one year, and I really miss it. It is the safest place in the world to be. The cost of living is extremely low, and travel is cheap and easy, especially to Europe.
I loved living with muslims. They love their religion, and generally want to be good muslims. They don't tolerate dishonesty. A kid once over-charged me for a packet of tissue, and the owner went after him to get my money back! You could leave anything in a taxi, and they will return it to you!
It is dirty and noisy, but also very exciting. 5-Star hotels, like the Hilton on the Nile, will cost you about $40-$50/night. If you are a single woman, it can be tough, because you might get a lot of attention. The language barrier was also a bit of a problem, but makes for some funny stories.
I loved living with muslims. They love their religion, and generally want to be good muslims. They don't tolerate dishonesty. A kid once over-charged me for a packet of tissue, and the owner went after him to get my money back! You could leave anything in a taxi, and they will return it to you!
It is dirty and noisy, but also very exciting. 5-Star hotels, like the Hilton on the Nile, will cost you about $40-$50/night. If you are a single woman, it can be tough, because you might get a lot of attention. The language barrier was also a bit of a problem, but makes for some funny stories.
-
teacherincairo
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:03 am
- Location: Cairo
A Few Answers:
First: Almost all the private schools in Cairo are pretty tough places to teach. Many of the students are undisciplined and have little to no interest in "learning," they are primarily in these schools to get a degree for family pride and bragging rights. (The American programs are considered the easiest way to get the grades needed for university.) These kids, the upper class of Cairo, will be set up with a good job in the family business so a real education as a stepping stone to a satisfying or better job is mostly unimportant to them. (I am generalizing here, I have some great kids who really want to learn, but that is the exception rather than the rule.)
All private schools in Cairo are businesses first and schools second. You as a teacher in these schools will be an employee first and an educator second. You need to be OK with that if you expect to survive here. The American system has been a blessing for the owners of these schools. As we do not have any "real" end of year exam the door is open for all sorts of unethical practices, the main one being the changing of grades. Most American schools in Cairo will change the grades you turn in. The parents are paying a lot of money for their kids to get an A and an A they will get. (This is partially the fault of the university system here where what you will major in is almost entirely dependent on your grades, so if you want to be a doctor or an engineer, and all the families want their kids to be one or the other, you have to have straight A's.) The Ministry of Education has responded to this by making (I hear) the SAT exam a huge percentage of the final grade these kids will get. Rumor has it that the grades from school will count as 40% of the final GPA, while the SAT will count for 60%. This means that classroom grades will become less important and SAT work will take a priority. If you are an English or Math teacher in high school you will be under enourmous pressure and I fear those of us not teaching those core SAT type subjects will be shunted aside or have to change our teaching to make sure everything is geared towards the SAT exam.
1. NARMER- As far as second tier Cairo international schools go Narmer is one of the better ones. The director, Dr. Yoder, is a very nice man who seems to really care about his school, his staff and the students. I've heard discipline is a problem at the school, but that is a common complaint around here, so it's not shocking. I've not heard many tales of grade changing, but have no idea if it happens or not. The staff of Narmer I've talked to seem fairly happy at the school, which is a huge plus. Quite a few of the staff have been at the school for at least two years, which is also fairly impressive for an Egyptian school. The only problem I hear about with Narmer is the ownership. A family owns the school and a few others. One of the sisters, who I hear is very passionate about education, controls the American school. The problem is that she is only one of many family members, so many of the changes she tries to make with the school, moving it from a business to an actual school, do not happen because the other family members (the board of directors) vote her down.
Narmer is moving into a brand new building this August. From the drawings and the hype it looks to be a fairly impressive place. Promises of large classrooms, computers in every room, central air, indoor gym, designed by an actual architect, furnishings imported from America... sound great. It remains to be seen if these things are true. But it looks like the right direction.
Long story short- Narmer is not a bad place, you could do MUCH MUCH worse in Cairo!
2. From what I hear you get to pick your own flat once you move here. (Narmer does not have teacher housing.) You will be living in an area of Cairo called Maadi, which is a very pleasant place. It's not crowded, it's very green and very expat friendly. There are a wide variety of flats in Maadi and for the most part they are large, nice and pleasant. A few things to look for- make sure everything works in your flat! A/C, heat, lights, fridge, phone... Try to get a place with screens on the windows, ask for the carpets to be cleaned, fridge, walls... Get all promises in writing and do not pay your full deposit until these promises are fulfilled. Your landlord may forget all about you and the promises made once they get your deposit.
3. Living in Cairo is an experience. It's a huge and polluted city. (Right now I'm looking out my window and it's so smoggy it looks like a fog has rolled in.) But it's a great place to live. Lots of sights and sounds, plenty to do, great nightlife, good expat scene.
Maadi has everything you need, most of it within walking distance. Great markets, fun shops, quiet areas, good clubs. The Nile is close for those Thursday night-one case of beer and a few friends-release the stress of a tough week of teaching Egyptian kids-felucca sails. There are some good expat clubs, a softball field, and other bits of home that make life, on occasion, bearable.
Egypt is an incredibly cheap place to live. Your salary will go a long ways here. Travel is also very cheap.
I've been in Cairo for two years. Have two more to go. I'll be ready to leave then, but am loving it here.
First: Almost all the private schools in Cairo are pretty tough places to teach. Many of the students are undisciplined and have little to no interest in "learning," they are primarily in these schools to get a degree for family pride and bragging rights. (The American programs are considered the easiest way to get the grades needed for university.) These kids, the upper class of Cairo, will be set up with a good job in the family business so a real education as a stepping stone to a satisfying or better job is mostly unimportant to them. (I am generalizing here, I have some great kids who really want to learn, but that is the exception rather than the rule.)
All private schools in Cairo are businesses first and schools second. You as a teacher in these schools will be an employee first and an educator second. You need to be OK with that if you expect to survive here. The American system has been a blessing for the owners of these schools. As we do not have any "real" end of year exam the door is open for all sorts of unethical practices, the main one being the changing of grades. Most American schools in Cairo will change the grades you turn in. The parents are paying a lot of money for their kids to get an A and an A they will get. (This is partially the fault of the university system here where what you will major in is almost entirely dependent on your grades, so if you want to be a doctor or an engineer, and all the families want their kids to be one or the other, you have to have straight A's.) The Ministry of Education has responded to this by making (I hear) the SAT exam a huge percentage of the final grade these kids will get. Rumor has it that the grades from school will count as 40% of the final GPA, while the SAT will count for 60%. This means that classroom grades will become less important and SAT work will take a priority. If you are an English or Math teacher in high school you will be under enourmous pressure and I fear those of us not teaching those core SAT type subjects will be shunted aside or have to change our teaching to make sure everything is geared towards the SAT exam.
1. NARMER- As far as second tier Cairo international schools go Narmer is one of the better ones. The director, Dr. Yoder, is a very nice man who seems to really care about his school, his staff and the students. I've heard discipline is a problem at the school, but that is a common complaint around here, so it's not shocking. I've not heard many tales of grade changing, but have no idea if it happens or not. The staff of Narmer I've talked to seem fairly happy at the school, which is a huge plus. Quite a few of the staff have been at the school for at least two years, which is also fairly impressive for an Egyptian school. The only problem I hear about with Narmer is the ownership. A family owns the school and a few others. One of the sisters, who I hear is very passionate about education, controls the American school. The problem is that she is only one of many family members, so many of the changes she tries to make with the school, moving it from a business to an actual school, do not happen because the other family members (the board of directors) vote her down.
Narmer is moving into a brand new building this August. From the drawings and the hype it looks to be a fairly impressive place. Promises of large classrooms, computers in every room, central air, indoor gym, designed by an actual architect, furnishings imported from America... sound great. It remains to be seen if these things are true. But it looks like the right direction.
Long story short- Narmer is not a bad place, you could do MUCH MUCH worse in Cairo!
2. From what I hear you get to pick your own flat once you move here. (Narmer does not have teacher housing.) You will be living in an area of Cairo called Maadi, which is a very pleasant place. It's not crowded, it's very green and very expat friendly. There are a wide variety of flats in Maadi and for the most part they are large, nice and pleasant. A few things to look for- make sure everything works in your flat! A/C, heat, lights, fridge, phone... Try to get a place with screens on the windows, ask for the carpets to be cleaned, fridge, walls... Get all promises in writing and do not pay your full deposit until these promises are fulfilled. Your landlord may forget all about you and the promises made once they get your deposit.
3. Living in Cairo is an experience. It's a huge and polluted city. (Right now I'm looking out my window and it's so smoggy it looks like a fog has rolled in.) But it's a great place to live. Lots of sights and sounds, plenty to do, great nightlife, good expat scene.
Maadi has everything you need, most of it within walking distance. Great markets, fun shops, quiet areas, good clubs. The Nile is close for those Thursday night-one case of beer and a few friends-release the stress of a tough week of teaching Egyptian kids-felucca sails. There are some good expat clubs, a softball field, and other bits of home that make life, on occasion, bearable.
Egypt is an incredibly cheap place to live. Your salary will go a long ways here. Travel is also very cheap.
I've been in Cairo for two years. Have two more to go. I'll be ready to leave then, but am loving it here.
-
TexianTravel
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:35 pm
- Location: Egypt
How Things Change
My oh my, how things change.
The new building didn't fix anything; it made things worse. Now they have a huge loan they have to cover, and the only way to do that is students, students, and more students. But since they hadn't built the quality reputation (along with not finishing that building!) they had to accept some pretty low level students. This in turn caused teachers to leave (so many, I really lost count. Around 9 if you count just the westerners, around 15 if you count the Egyptians hired to replace the westerners. If you count the ones who were hired and decided to not to come, or who were hired and worked only one day, the count is closer to 20)
In addition, these are highly unethical people. The latest departures were the Director of IT and the future elementary principal, who was teaching fifth grade. The school had demoted the Director by leaving a letter on his desk to find when he returned from Spring Break.
Contracts are meaningless for these people. They will change the length of service, the amount of pay, and the duties involved at will. They did it to him, they did it to me, and they will do it to you. You will be hired to teach Social Studies, find yourself changed to Math, find yourself changed again to part-time Math teacher, part-time administrator, then fired because the students made up lies about you. Or you will honorably give the school notice you are leaving at the end of the month, and be told don't bother you're fired, come in on the weekend and get your things.
Parents must pay a fee to have their child assessed by the school. The school accepted the fee to test a 2-year old for Pre-Kindergarten, who would not have turned three until January 2008. There are 3 year-olds in Pre-K, 8 year-olds in fourth grade, and 9 year-olds in fifth. There are 11 year-olds in the seventh grade, and the list goes on.
It is pretty sad when you go to the travel agent for tickets home, mention you work at Narmer, and the agent looks at you and says, "You need to leave in the middle of the night, don't you?" It is sad when you take your pet to the vet for their certificate of health and say you work at Narmer, and the vet makes a face and says, "Oh, them."
Whatever Narmer has been in the past, this year has been so bad it will take years to overcome, if indeed it can be. Narmer is a dying school. Don't go there. Death is not pretty.
The new building didn't fix anything; it made things worse. Now they have a huge loan they have to cover, and the only way to do that is students, students, and more students. But since they hadn't built the quality reputation (along with not finishing that building!) they had to accept some pretty low level students. This in turn caused teachers to leave (so many, I really lost count. Around 9 if you count just the westerners, around 15 if you count the Egyptians hired to replace the westerners. If you count the ones who were hired and decided to not to come, or who were hired and worked only one day, the count is closer to 20)
In addition, these are highly unethical people. The latest departures were the Director of IT and the future elementary principal, who was teaching fifth grade. The school had demoted the Director by leaving a letter on his desk to find when he returned from Spring Break.
Contracts are meaningless for these people. They will change the length of service, the amount of pay, and the duties involved at will. They did it to him, they did it to me, and they will do it to you. You will be hired to teach Social Studies, find yourself changed to Math, find yourself changed again to part-time Math teacher, part-time administrator, then fired because the students made up lies about you. Or you will honorably give the school notice you are leaving at the end of the month, and be told don't bother you're fired, come in on the weekend and get your things.
Parents must pay a fee to have their child assessed by the school. The school accepted the fee to test a 2-year old for Pre-Kindergarten, who would not have turned three until January 2008. There are 3 year-olds in Pre-K, 8 year-olds in fourth grade, and 9 year-olds in fifth. There are 11 year-olds in the seventh grade, and the list goes on.
It is pretty sad when you go to the travel agent for tickets home, mention you work at Narmer, and the agent looks at you and says, "You need to leave in the middle of the night, don't you?" It is sad when you take your pet to the vet for their certificate of health and say you work at Narmer, and the vet makes a face and says, "Oh, them."
Whatever Narmer has been in the past, this year has been so bad it will take years to overcome, if indeed it can be. Narmer is a dying school. Don't go there. Death is not pretty.
-
guestwriter
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:50 pm
Narmer
I am glad I left when I did, although I miss Egypt and living in Cairo.
-
TexianTravel
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:35 pm
- Location: Egypt
Death Is Not Pretty
I've said it before, Narmer is a dying school. I wish I could tell you to what depths these people will sink, but unfortunately the depths to which they will sink scare me! People who are willing to committ one felony are usually willing to committ others. We're not talking contract violations here people. We're talking CRIME. It doesn't surprise me that they are desperate. At some point, a total lack of ethics catches up with you.
-
mishmumkin
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:25 pm
-
TexianTravel
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:35 pm
- Location: Egypt
Who did the last review of Narmer? Where are you now? I want to teach at your new school! I understand not wanting to post your name. If you are willing, please e-mail me at Narmer_2006@yahoo.com. If you were there last year, you worked with me.
I would also love to know the name of the school which is talked about in the Narmer review where they list all of the excellent benefits they are experiencing at the school they went to after leaving Narmer. It sounds a lot like one of the many GREAT schools in Southeast Asia. You can find packages like the one described out there...and many are in places like Taipei American School, Jakarta International School, Singapore American School, and International School of Bangkok. Those of you who are tired of the 'school for profit' which seems to proliferate in the Middle East should head to SE Asia and check out some of the fantastic [b][b]truly[/b] international schools that can be found in this neck of the woods!