american international school kuwait

[aysha]

get away from this school - if you have a contract get out of it - it's getting worse!!!

[jody]

School has a record number of negative reviews, but can it really be that bad?

[teacher in kuwait]

It appears the teachers at AIS have teamed up to take this school down. There are A LOT of schools in Kuwait, as noted by the list of schools rated. Most are pretty poor in my opinion. I know people who work at AIS. The two I know seem happy. One guy I met last year hated the school and felt it was misrepresented by the Superintendent at the time. I think he took off. I have been to the school once and found the facilities to be nothing special, but not nearly as bad as some places here.

With all the recent comments posted, we either have a lot of disgruntled teachers leaving who want to take down the school with them, or some valuable info for prospective employees - maybe a little bit of both. Kuwait can be a tough place and I have seen in former schools how teachers leaving nitpick and bitvh about everything in the months before they leave. The teachers at AIS who have posted are obviously ready to leave. It seems funny that the messages are all coming at once though. It is obviously a coordinated thing. How does ISR prevent one person from posting twice? Is that possible? Just curious.

[AISKteacher]

As a present teacher at AIS, I can say that many of these reviews are coming through now because some people did not want to post until they received all their money

Is it really as bad as it seems? Not in my opinion. Most of the problems this year boil down to two issues--One, the failure of the owners to give raises to the current teachers--so you have a situation where a new teacher with the same qualifications and experience will be making more than someone who has been here a few years, while also raising tuition for next year as well. The second issue relates to health care, or the apparent lack of reliable coverage.

Without going on my own rant about the negatives about working at a for-profit school, especially one where the owners seem so strongly profit-oriented, I would say that as a teacher I just focus on my own class and doing the best job I can. Overall, this year has been a good one for me and I can't say that I have any personal issues that have come up with the management. Most days I enjoy my students and my job and ignore the #$(% that is happening elsewhere.

The real tragedy is that all of the good work so many teachers are doing here is being overshadowed by the events not in the classroom. Today in school there were flyers being distributed around the school with a username and password so students and parents could go on and read these reviews. I would say that this site has now become a venting place for the disgruntled teachers at the school.

While I would say that many of these issues do exist, all of the teachers I work with are still putting in 100% and doing their best in difficult decisions. If the owners were to give some kind of small perq--maybe a small bonus or something--to recognize how difficult the work has been this year, they would go a long way to rebuilding some of the goodwill and maybe stopping so many of the negative posts here.

[Jody]

Thanks for the insights, I have a friend at AIS but he always says everything is fine. I know some people who turned down jobs or would not Interview with AIS because of these reviews. The complains seem real enough but all based around the same things- Health Care and raises, some facilities and angst with PYP and MYP. Still these reviews while many and consistent are not horrific like what I read on some other schools. I do believe the admin of the school should somehow address the issue because the school is getting an awful rep and that is a shame, if it is not deserved. I met the out going superintended once and really did like her. But to be honest I would stay away from the school because something seems to be going on. Handing out info to parents to log onto ISR- this is very vindictive but also shows people are passionate about the problems. I am sure the staff must all know what is going on, these poor reviews have been coming in for a few years- however I notice no teacher posts a review with an alternative point of view. Why is that? Other schools will have negative reviews balanced with alternative points of view- in AIS they are all bad. Why?

[TiK]

As Jody asked, where are the reviews of people who do like AIS? Usually there is balance here and that is why I signed up with ISR. If it were ALL negative, whining posts, I would see that this is a site strictly for disgruntled teachers.

I still think AIS is way ahead of many, if not, most of the other schools listed in the reviews in this site. In general, there seems to be a greater than average of # of teachers in Kuwait who know ISR and post than other schools around the world. I wonder why??

[AISKteacher]

For whatever reason, most of the teachers [and admin, and probably the owner] check out ISR on our school. Once enough people start using the site, the more popular it becomes, and the more people who use the site, and so on.

I think people who are happy in their work will probably be less inclined to seek out ISR and file a positive report. I haven't taught at other international schools, but I suspect that for Kuwait, this school is pretty good as far as the quality of teaching goes, but it's the facilities and the actions of the owners that affect things the most. A number of students of mine say they are jumping over to the new school, ABS [or so they say--you never know until fall] because of these problems. Again, though, as I said before, I have had a good year personally and for me most of these issues have not applied. If I had experienced a medical condition and not been covered, though, and had to pay hundreds of dinars of my own money, I might feel differently. For now, I can enjoy a few months of well deserved holidays

[Jody]

In an International school teachers should take note of problems, even if a problem does not effect you your school has a problem. Ignoring what does not effect you will only allow additional problems to grow until one day you are effected. But as the school is for profit they will only do something once they see that profit being eroded by either additional cost to cover employers who do a runner or stay a short time and student enrollment dropping. Obvious the admin knows the problems voiced by unhappy staff, problems that do seem to be valid concerns. Many people are happy to get on with their work if they at least know admin is trying. Good luck next year at AIS.

[been there]

One thing that I do not doubt about all the negative publicity that is currently affecting AISK is that school owners, school boards, and even administration are no longer able to practice dishonest and shameful human resource actions with impunity. One thing is sure for those of us watching AISK from the outside. There are alot of unhappy people there. Furthermore, the owners/board of this school who was hoping to save money by slashing final paychecks and medical coverage are about to learn a very painful and very costly lesson. When a school in Kuwait turns over more than half of their international staff the parents and students will question the school. This can lead to a massive loss of students as happened to ACA back in 2002. The loss of revenue will quickly outstrip the greedy and short sited costs saved. I suspect that AISK will probably have to reinvent it's package in order to save face.

Final thought- Bravo to ISR for giving teachers a forum to discuss shameful as well as model school practices. This kind of public forum is the closest thing to a union that we have.

[AISKteacher]

One thing that I do not doubt about all the negative publicity that is currently affecting AISK is that school owners, school boards, and even administration are no longer able to practice dishonest and shameful human resource actions with impunity.

The only thing that would have an effect on this would be a drop in enrollment. I don't believe the fact that teachers are unhappy actually affects the owners--at least not as far as the bottom line is concerned. The truth is they can usually find new teachers to replace the ones who leave. I would be surprised if there is any change to the major issues [health care, pay issues] next year. But maybe I'm wrong--Insh'allah

[da3boyzs]

I was an AISK teacher, I loved teaching in Kuwait. As far as Kuwait goes all schools have problems that is true. Unfortunately most negative comments are true or have an element of truth in them. I have never had problems with the admin, teachers, parents, or students. I do have a big problem with the owners, especially Badri Al-Rayyes. He started a his own insurance company because he felt out patient coverage was too expensive. He tried to hide this from the staff all year. When confronted by teachers he would lie. At the end of the school year he took all of my summer pay. When I inquired he told me he took the risk so I had to pay for the risk. I provide the insurance coverage for my family. I called the phone number of Inernational Insurance Consultants(Badri's Company) and it was the number of a trading company. They don't sell insurance and never heard of his company. I confronted Badri about this and he quickly tried to get me out of his office. I never got my money back for insurance I did not sign for or ask for. I filed a complaint with the ministry of eduacation. Maybe some day I will get my money. So most of the negative is true.

[Anothert Kuwait teacher]

I work at another Kuwait International School with a fastly deminishing reputation and a high staff turnover.
One thing that is in common with all of us is that we work for Kuwaties. Please remember that we are in Kuwait and that not all are equal under God here. In the eyes of the local population If you are a national of Kuwait you are worth more. You are worth caring about.
Us as expats are lower than them. We are as expendable as a chair or a book. We are employed and are a person in the room but we matter no more to the owners than a sheep in a flock. If we leave we can be replaced - quite easily.
We are lucky that we are not from another of the asian countries. Then we would be worth even less.

I am not having a go at the people of this nation i am just stating things as I see that they are. As a non Kuwati, non Muslem westener my life is not as valuable in their eyes are theirs is.

Things will not change in Kuwait for a very long time. The locals have found themselves with a lot of money in a reletively short time they have discovered that this gives them a lot of power and the need to generate more money. As a culture it is going to take a few generations for them to learn the responsibility that this money and power have with it.

Some people learn quickly, Some people do not. I think as a Nation Kuwait has a lot to learn and until that happens things will not change here.

[Past AIS Teacher]

I am not bitter but will share my past.

I did my thing, stayed out of politics, enjoyed my time, and all went well. It was the blacklisting the followed that I never expected. We lost a new job due to baseless accusations of being a poor worker while at AISK. We could have combated it, but the positive recommendations we were given gave us no inkling this resent was harbored. Our lives changed forever.

I have heard others being in the same situation. I wish I knew why some people can be so vindictive.

[was there also]

A comment to the teacher in Kuwait. You did well to look at the information clearfully. I left and did not do a review. Many came at once because people waited until they were out of the country with their salary in the bank. Trust was an issue. The review and comments are bad because the school had an terrible year. Would all of these comments come from a well run school where teachers are treated as a valued resource? Is the school that bad at recruiting that all they can find are negative complainers? The school did a terrible job of caring from their teachers. Recruiting families with children and then reducing health coverage without consulting the teachers or honestly sharing information is uncaring to the highest order. They should be ashamed of this. It may change. They did change the health coverage for this year. There are many better place who treat the teachers as a valued resourse. Teachers did not get together in a room and plan an attack on the school. The issues created a negative atmosphere that was never cured. I am sssooo thankful that I have left to a far more caring place.