SABIS- International School Of Choueifat Muscat

SOS1991

Anyone thinking about going to teach at the International School of Choueifat Muscat. This thread is to provide information and events on the school with less bias than the school deserves.

First, the Director. He is an extremely unreasonable and unprofessional man. As well as this he is notoriously racist which is not only from a teachers point of view but also from many of the grade 12 students not of Arabic heritage. There simply are not enough adjectives to describe this man.

Second, Racism is rampant. Basically there is a hierarchy of Arabic on top and everyone else below. In fact in many situations Arabic teachers and admin staff will blatantly speak about western teachers in front of them, about them in Arabic. From personal experience this happened to me whilst attending a meeting with the Director and Deputy Director. Another facet of this is down to clothing, there is a strict clothing policy meaning no tight clothes, high heels etc. this only applies to Western who are called in constantly about the slightest discrepancy in dress whilst many of the Arabic staff dress for coppers.

Third, Supervisors. There are some very good supervisors for the lower and middle grades but the higher grade supervisors are terrible. One supervisor for the older grades actually ran after a student and kicked him in the backside. This again is an example of the rampant racism, if a westerner teacher had done this they would be fired instantly. That said there are to be new supervisors for the odler grades next year.

Fourth, Cameras. Every classroom in the school is equipped with cameras. There has been much debate whether it is legal to record children or not but that's neither here nor there. You do need to know that these cameras are being constantly watched and listened to. The quality is perfect so be careful what you say. That said it does give you back up when the kids mouth off and deny it later which happens a lot.

Fifth, Children. With every school you will find inherently good and bad students the only difference with ISC Muscat is that neither good or bad students are controlled. ISC Muscat is famous for allowing the worse of the worse students into the school, both academically and behaviorally. As it is a business for profit at the end of the day, they tend to pack classes with any child that has money. Last year there were total 3 grade 7 classes, each of these classes contained 38 children. Teaching 38 children is not teaching, its crowd control. As the students are rarely disciplined, they push the boundaries. In terms of the infant department it is much the same, children are accepted even without toilet training. If you are a KG 1 teacher, you will be knee deep in poo, puke and crying children. Of course there are some good, bright kids bt many have sub par results and unruly behavior. Also hey love speaking Arabic in class and they especially love saying things about their teachers in Arabic.

Sixth, Language. ISC is meant to be a international school meaning all subject bar Arabic must be taught in English. Wishful thinking. If a maths or science teacher are Arabic and majority of the class are Arabic then the students are learning the subject in Arabic. As well as this, the supervisors speak to the students in Arabic when you ask the to discipline them for speaking Arabic in English class. Irony.

Seventh, Sexism. Men get paid more than women, need I say more?

Eight, Location. The school and accommodation are located in Seeb. Seeb is not the worse place to live but if you want to go to a nice restaurant or bar you'll be trekking at least 30 minutes. When you think of it that way you could live in Sharjah and go for a night out in Dubai in the same amount of time.

There's just a few grievances working in ISC Muscat. There are many more that I will not go into as I don't want the thread to be too biased and personal. Not to be completely negative I will give some positives.

First, The HOD of the English. The one saving grace of the school. One of the only western admin members and definitely the only one that makes sense.

Secondly, free coffee.


That's all the positives really. Although the school is tough to say the least, Muscat itself is a beautiful, up and coming country with a lot to offer. My advice to you would be go to Muscat, but maybe not ISC Muscat.