Life After SABIS

So, how bad could it be? Surely you can survive a year here without serious repercussions. If you are a recent graduate and just coming to see what they region’s about or if you want to see if teaching is the thing for you, then one year at SABIS probably won’t do you that much damage professionally.

That statement may or may not be true. If you plan to work in the west, and most of the United States (except for Massachusetts and other areas where SABIS has charter schools), nobody knows who SABIS is, and will probably take a year or two in a SABIS school as a documented year of teaching experience.

However, if you plan to work somewhere else with credible educational credentials in the Middle East, you might be out of luck. Reports from several other people as well as my own experience can attest to the fact that teaching for SABIS can not only be discounted as a year of experience, but can actually be a black mark on your CV. One school director told me that he was reluctant to call me for an interview because SABIS was my most recent experience. He said he decided to interview me since I had 5 years of teaching experience before that. According to him, he had hired ex-SABIS teachers before, but they “had problems adjusting to a non-SABIS system” and “had problems performing simple teaching duties such as making tests, planning lessons for themselves, and treating students as individuals.”

An American acquaintance filled out an application for a school and never heard back from them. A friend of hers from back home was hired at this school, and inquired as to why her friend had never been called, despite having classroom experience. The director found a copy of the woman’s CV and said that she would never hire an ex-Choueifat employee again after experiences similar to what my interviewer described above. Luckily, this person was eventually able to find employment back in America.

It is important to remember that just about all other educational institutions in the region hate SABIS. SABIS freely admits this, but says that it is hated because they do everything that they do so well. Other institutions will tell you that it is because they mostly employ recent graduates who are looking for a teaching holiday or unqualified people because they are cheaper. The reasons go on and on.

Perhaps the most telling testimonial I can give on this point is that I have yet to see, hear, meet, or hear tale of anyone who went to a SABIS school and then came back to work for SABIS as an adult.