The International Schools Review Forum

So after years of being somewhat intrigued by this school and hearing tons of rumors about how grand it is to work there I want to know... How much do teachers really make? I know it's a lot but I want numbers.... anyone?

A teaching couple can bank 70,000 a year easily. They prefer to hire couples. There is a main site (Dhahran) and several smaller sites (Ras Tanurah, Oudelelah (sp), and another one or two.

I dont think its grand to work there. Its very much more a company then it is a "school", though the school issues themselves are minor its still in the middle of nowhere in the ME.

That said "easily" is an understatement, teachers can bank 100K in coin. Not just make, bank. The money is like crack, the golden handcuff its referred too. You save 75K a year, and you start thinking, I can leave in 3 years with 250K, a "quarter million" and that has a REALLY sweet sound to it, then you think, wait in 6 years i can have "half a million" thats 20% better then a lifetime 401k and better then a pension after a lifetime of teaching, and were talking 5 years. Thats nothing, you can take that head to thailand or South America and retire. Then you think wow half a million in decade we can clear a cool million, maybe not as good as those wall street types, but we can retire easily AND send the kids to college with no loans.

So you're saying I should work in the Middle East, PsyGuy??? hahahaha...(PLEASE don't respond! I'm just takin' the piss, as my British colleagues say). Last year, I actually threw in an application in one of my darker moments as I didn't have a job in mid-April. And this with a family of 4! The almighty dollar was beckoning, Middle East or not!

Now, I'm entrenched in the pollution of Beijing and thinking, "hmmmm ....wonder what I would have done if I had actually received an offer!" (Which, of course, I didn't!)