Delandian

Hello,

I recently went for an interview to work at the AJA in Doha and it went well. I would love to go and live in Doha with my family. Has anyone got any experience in working for the AJA? Many thanks

novita77

I met some ladies who works there as a teacher. They said they are not impressed with the school ... mainly because of majority of the kids are locals. They come to school with one driver and one nanny, and they driver and the nany would wait outside till the school finish. You will have a hard time to communicate with the parents.

My husband's friend have 2 kids (South African) who going to AJA ... they hate it. They can't find any other decent school (Doha College) so after 2 term the kids went back to SA.

Hope this help.

Delandian

Thanks for your reply. It is not very positive. I am not really concerned for me but my son would be starting school there. Let me know if you find anymore out. Is it nice to live in Qatar?

novita77

I been in Doha nearly 6 yrs ... so far i am loving it The down side the living cost going up and up (especially housing).

For new expat family coming to Doha is always a pain for looking for the school at the moment... i take it you will have no alternative for your son to go somewhere else since AJA will only give a free schooling in AJA.

Again AJA is not very popular school among expat community.

I know is not sounds promising about the school ... but that an honest opinion from me ...

novita77

HI ... THIS IS ONE OF THE POST I DIG OUT FROM ANOTHER FORUM ABOUT AJA. HOPE HELP YOU OUT TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE PLACE



Al Jazeera is a big no-no, regardless of which curriculum you are after. Teachers work wonders with the limted resource and absoluetly NO support they receive from senior management. Poor staff are fired willy nilly (in most cases it has nothing to do with the teaching side of things either!!!!!) so chances are your child will have more than one teacher in a year.

No formal assessment whatsoever. How are children assessed? Well, I was a teacher there, and I can tell you from very recent first hand experience, it is purely based on what "I as the teacher thinks" and nothing else - so good thing if your child is a teacher's pet. And let’s just hope that the other teachers and I know what we are doing and can make a good judgement on your child's progress and attainment - god forbid if we get it wrong. (please bare in mind, that I have only been a teacher for 5 years, have very limited experience and am by no means an expert - how the bloody hell am I going to assess your child if I have nothing to assess him/her against???) Management can't even answer that one either, I have asked them and they are a lot older and much more experienced than I am.

NO curriculum for Numeracy or Literacy, its all made up as we go along. Topic based subjects are covered through a programme called International Primary Curriculum. In some units of work, essential subjects like Science aren't even taught. I worked there for 7 months and only taught ONE Science lesson, ZERO music lessons and only TWO art lessons (despite querying how worrying this is, with the Senior Management Team) - not a very balanced curriculum for topic work - I'd be very worried if my child wasn't being taught the range of subjects by the age of 11.

Resources, bwah...don’t make me laugh.....there are 88 children in the year group I taught - we had 23 text books to share between all 88 of them (over 4 classrooms)! My maths tells me: ratio of 4children:1textbook. Facilities are shockingly poor i.e. VERY limited drinking water available, toilets are regularly broken (girls toilets were broken for 3 months!, no outside toilet - so once your child is outside in the boiling hot heat during playtime, he/she may not go inside at all for the duration of play....no toilet or drinking water....the shaded areas provided are also very limited, so I dread to think how these precious children cope in the mid-summer heat, no outside toilets, no water facilities and limited shade - crispy kids I guess!

When you attand an entrance interview,the director is bound to tell you porky-pies, as he wants your money and nothing else. If you look closely, you will probably see the Qatar Riyal signs rolling in his eyes when you talk about enrolling your child. Home-school links are appalling: the newsletter is a joke. Most of it is plagiarised from various websites and not very personal at all. No tissues available in the classrooms so children have to disturb lessons to go to the toilets (which only sometimes work), to fetch loo roll to blow their noses.

Most staff are nervous wrecks as they daren't say boo to management, in fear of being suspended or sacked. Many new staff were warned by present staff that they were to keep their heads down, so yip, that's how the con artist director gets away with it....virtual blackmail.....if you do this, then I'll do that....poor vulnerable staff members who aren’t valued at all.

BTW, staff turn-over is incredibly high every year: some luckier ones manage to escape on their own accord, sadly others just get on with it and live with the axe hanging above their heads.

Don't say you haven't been warned! This school is appauling due to it lazy, narrow-minded snake of a director! I most certainly wouldn't advise anyone to work there strong discourage parents from sending their kids to that pit! Anywhere would be better, just ask those willing to speak up, the will confirm what I've just said if they had half a chance to tell the truth!

MJC

@ Novita 77

Fook pet, that doesn't sound good!

novita77

@MJC

That wasn't my post ... but someone who works there. Last time i heard she got sacked because she wrote the post.