Go Government
Going with a government institution as the second and only other party involved is your best bet anywhere in the Gulf at this time. A baby boom has come of age and is in dire need of training and education. This has created a soft spot in the market for private education and private training alternatives. For example, many young people--mostly men of course--have joined the military as a last resort for work (sound familiar?). Teaching them English can be lucrative, especially in the Kingdom but most Ministry of Defence teaching jobs use private contractors to supply a teaching staff and these contractors can be ruthless when it comes anything remotely related to their bottom lines. Taking specific days for holidays or even having a legitimate sick day costs the contractor money and is severely frowned upon. Many private institutions and universities have sprung up from Kuwait through Oman and apparently this is now happening in KSA. Usually they are very loosely affiliated with credible schools in the US, UK or Australia yet providing a credible education is second to acquiring customers/students, and when education is second that generally means teachers come second, i.e. a teacher who pushes a student to learn might be pushing away a customer in a competitive market where students are much harder to recruit than are language teachers. A few private schools and a few third party contractors might be ok, but in my opinion they would be exceptions to the rule. Government institutions are far less concerned with raking in money (well, in fact, they provide free education to those who qualify), and therefore they are more concerned with separating the wheat from the chaffe in order to produce capable, qualified future members of a workforce. If a good teacher is out sick one day, the government schools may even wish you to get well soon whereas a private contractor might demand that you to drag yourself in to punch the clock (you are slacking off and costing them money) or face termination.
Often on a privately contracted job, the training institution will give students some time off, for example, maybe they leave early on Wednesdays or don't come in at all; often they leave for weeks at a time between terms or during the hottest summer months. Basically school's out.
In the government sector, when students aren't around, this more often than not means teachers don't have to come to work and can travel provided there is no grunt work (grades to be turned in, curriculum to be developed, textbooks to be sorted out, committees to be met, etc).
A private contractor, on the other hand, gets paid for every warm body that shows up and signs in daily work to be done or not. Sometimes they are paid for your weekends as well so you might not be permitted an exit visa or in extreme cases a travel visa within the country! This means that a teacher must show up, sign in, be present and accounted for even if there is nothing to do.
Perhaps the teacher spends days or even weeks signing in at 6:45 AM then spends the day playing free cell or Trivial Pursuit (furtively) until 3 or 4, Saturday through Wednesday. tick toc tick toc. Most private contracts offer about 30 days off per annum and especially in Saudi Arabia these thirty days are pretty much eaten up during Eid Al Fitr and Hadj.
If classes are not scheduled for three to four weeks in the summer and if there isn't a major Islamic holiday that summer, the teacher is confined to work and compound life--it is hard not to feel imprisoned and not in control of your own life. Even weekend passes can be denied. If one is fed up, running off isn't an option. In KSA, passports are pulled and they sit in some vault in some contractor's office while you either chew on resentments or deal with the situation. Having said all that, private contractors tend to pay higher salaries albiet they tend to save money by offering sub-standard accommodations.
One can't help but get a sense that perhaps the contractors earn a few extra riyals, dinars or dirhams by encouraging people to leave as soon as it is possible and not come back because they would retain staff easily by making a few generous tweaks to their strict rules and obsession with controlling as much of their employees' lives as possible.
Often on a privately contracted job, the training institution will give students some time off, for example, maybe they leave early on Wednesdays or don't come in at all; often they leave for weeks at a time between terms or during the hottest summer months. Basically school's out.
In the government sector, when students aren't around, this more often than not means teachers don't have to come to work and can travel provided there is no grunt work (grades to be turned in, curriculum to be developed, textbooks to be sorted out, committees to be met, etc).
A private contractor, on the other hand, gets paid for every warm body that shows up and signs in daily work to be done or not. Sometimes they are paid for your weekends as well so you might not be permitted an exit visa or in extreme cases a travel visa within the country! This means that a teacher must show up, sign in, be present and accounted for even if there is nothing to do.
Perhaps the teacher spends days or even weeks signing in at 6:45 AM then spends the day playing free cell or Trivial Pursuit (furtively) until 3 or 4, Saturday through Wednesday. tick toc tick toc. Most private contracts offer about 30 days off per annum and especially in Saudi Arabia these thirty days are pretty much eaten up during Eid Al Fitr and Hadj.
If classes are not scheduled for three to four weeks in the summer and if there isn't a major Islamic holiday that summer, the teacher is confined to work and compound life--it is hard not to feel imprisoned and not in control of your own life. Even weekend passes can be denied. If one is fed up, running off isn't an option. In KSA, passports are pulled and they sit in some vault in some contractor's office while you either chew on resentments or deal with the situation. Having said all that, private contractors tend to pay higher salaries albiet they tend to save money by offering sub-standard accommodations.
One can't help but get a sense that perhaps the contractors earn a few extra riyals, dinars or dirhams by encouraging people to leave as soon as it is possible and not come back because they would retain staff easily by making a few generous tweaks to their strict rules and obsession with controlling as much of their employees' lives as possible.
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