The International Schools Review Forum

A friend of mine has moved to Kuwait. He has two school aged children--wants to know where he should send them to school ( he is not a teacher). The campus of American Baccu. School is the best he reports, but the students are mostly Kuwati ( with the mindset that entails, of course) he thinks that perhaps that's too much of a culture shock for the girls.....so--would it be better to go to another school where there are more western kids? What are your thoughts?

Honestly, Kuwaiti kids can be really quite racist to any one who is NOT Kuwaiti....however, they might be a little intrigued by an American (?) student....but when Kuwaiti kids hang out, they speak Arabic. I would imagine it would be quite difficult for an American to assimilate into that environment. Plus (I'll preface this with saying I've had quite THE day teaching my "lovely" Kuwait kids) Kuwaiti kids can be very inconsiderate. I have a group of girls in my gr 3 class that are such huge drama queens. It is constant cliqueing and secrets and note passing and talking behind each others backs/name calling. It's incessant. At grade 3. Just yesterday, one girl said to another (who is typically her friend) "No one in the class even likes you. Can you even name anyone who likes you?!" in the most snarky attitude.

I do think it would be better to go to another school with some western kids, but the only school that I know of like that is American School of Kuwait (ASK) they have the embassy kids and diplomat kids, oil kids, etc. but I still don't think it's a huge population of kids. I've heard AIS is good too, in terms of the kids being more welcoming. I have a coworker is is Christian Lebanese and her daughter is going to be school age next year and she refused to put her in our school because of the racism and she heard good things about AIS so that is where she is sending her daughter.

Oh, also AIS is IB, so that is another perk to AIS.

Thank you so much for your response. Much appreciated--will forward this to my pal. :)

ASK is the big one for western, non-Arab kids. AIS is mainly Arabic/Kuwait. ASK is about 30 - 40% western, the highest mix of kids in the North American curriculum schools.

For British curriculum, BSK just off the Fahaheel Expressway is the big one. ASK is just off the Fahaheel Expressway on the 4th Ring Road.

My kids went to ASK when we lived in Kuwait and it was a solid school IMHO. That was a few years ago and some things have changed, but it would still be my first choice in Kuwait.

AIS has a solid IB program and north American teachers. AUS is new American school with a population that is over 40% non-Kuwaiti/international, including embassy families. All American teachers.

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We just left Kuwait. And as stated Kuwaiti kids are racist if you are not Kuwaiti it is not nice at all. I would say that there are NO pro's for schooling in Kuwait. My child is still unfolding all of his horrible experiences. Never again.