The International Schools Review Forum

I would love to see a table created by members that lists the "actual" benefits and pay international schools are offering. I say this because this tends to be a grey area that causes much discontent in the teaching community. Some benefits turn out to be expenses.

For example:
Free Tuition that ends up costing $3000 per year (How can this happen? Well, what if the free tuition is a taxable benefit at 20% tax rate?)

Housing that ends up costing $500 a month in utilities because the house is a rundown dump with no insulation.

How about how a daily rate is calculated when the school docks your pay for attending a job fair at the end of your contract?

The list goes on. It is brutal out there folks. Be careful.

I second this. I just found out that my school is advertising a scale that we do not have access to. This is an area that needs to be made transparent.

It is not too hard to add some fields in the "review" section describing

1) pay range
2) Does the school provide paid leave to seek another job at end of contract?
3) Pension?
4) Tuition for teachers kids (taxable benefit)


and so on. . . . . .

I think its much more complicated than that due to local cost of living and changing currency values. A straight monetary amount doesn't factor in the variables. Perhaps a spreadsheet with a COLA adjuster column? wouldn't that be a wonderful source of info.

I think the "how much do you save" info in the ISS packet is the most valuable info in the packet. Wish there was a way to verify. I know some admin check with various staff members to see if their estimate of savings is correct and others just inflate to look good. Always remember that overseas teachers are self-funded pension people.

Any reputable school will let you email a few current staff with questions, among which can be 'how much can you save per year'.

This is a nice way to find out if admin are relatively truthful. IF they refuse you any contact with current staff, that tells you something right away, doesn't it?? ie. run away.