Emirates National School Abu Dhabi

[shawarma]

Emirates National School - Abu Dhabi information at Dubai FAQ.

See also Emirates National School in Al Ain - a newer, sister school, which seems to have a better reputation.

International Schools Review had one, rather unpleasant, comment about this school (date unknown, but it was referring to Abu Dhabi ENS, not Al Ain)...

Emirates National School, UAE
International School Evaluation
Comments: This school, if not the worst "international school", has to be right up there. It is a disgrace.

Apartments: Those given to the new staff this year were in the middle of a construction zone without a paved road, telephone service, internet, or access to city water. (they use a water truck to fill up the tank on the roof, people have run out of water while showering for work) The returning staff have small but nice apartments.

Other comments are mixed with some saying it is an excellent school, and others saying it is a terrible place to work. It could be similar to many schools in the UAE - good students, good teachers, poor management. Or alternatively, is it like a handful of UAE schools with obnoxious students, whining teachers, and disinterested management?

Any comments about this school?

How many students?
How many staff?
Location?
What is salary range for teachers?

[madman]

ENS is a terrible school - the management is appalling - bullying, sly and conniving. Morale at the school is awful and staff are leaving in droves and being replaced with cheaper Arabian staff - mainly Jordanians (the management is largely Jordanian). Very few western staff become coordinators/heads of department these days - the management want their 'own people' in place, regardless of their suitability or experience. They just want 'Yes' Men. Western staff are treated very badly and there is no job security. Some staff had to wait 6 months for their contracts which are often changed mid-term and are loaded with penalties. As a government school they regard themselves as above the law.

No way can this be called an International School.

Teachers' professionalism is undermined constantly with students' being re-gradedand exam papers made easier so that more students pass. Staff meetings are rarely held these days - previously they were jaw-droppingly depressing and at one the emails of a recently fired member of staff were read out in front of everyone, despite numerous protests that this was both unnecessary and unprofessional.

Staff are forbidden from speaking with parents - it is considered a very serious 'offence'.

The school seems to operate behind closed doors with whispers, slander and backstabbing being commonplace. Yes, there are teaching staff here who whinge and whine and there are even also some crazies and (semi-)drunkards but the majority of complaints you will hear about this school are real and justified.

I am leaving this school this summer and regret every day I have endured at this place because it spoilt my experience of Abu Dhabi which is really a pretty good place to live.

[emmac27]

Is there anyone out there who has had a good experience/hopefully experiences of working at ens?

I am due to start working there this august and am very disheartened by all the negative comments.

question for madman..how long did u work at ens?

[dee diddles]

Hi All!
Just a word of warning. If you have signed and returned a contract to work in the ENS for the next school year, make sure that the ENS have returned a signed contract to you. If they haven't you should check to see if you still have that job. I was offered a job in March 2009, signed and returned the contract and all the required documents. No signed contract was returned to me. When I pushed them to return the signed contract the ENS contacted the recruitment agency to say that the vacancy no longer existed because the Ministery of Education would not sanction it. This is very strange since HR in ENS emailed me last week to say that the Ministery of Education had approved of my appointment but that they were waiting for the school board to approve it!
Ultimately it means that I no longer have a job with the ENS despite my many relevant recognised qualifications and almost 15years of teaching experience! I am now on the job hunt again because I really do want to work in Abu Dhabi - unfortunately most of the positions are now filled. BE CAREFUL EVERYONE!

[leogirl]

For anyone who is planning to join ENS in August I can only say don't do it. The insanity of the admin has been well documented in various blogs. Now add to that the fact that all new staff will be living in the middle of a construction site in the desert. There are no shops, facilities, transport, street lighting- NOTHING. Do not rely on what your contract says- when you reach the UAE you will find that it's not worth the paper it's written on. You can find something better.

[chucklette]

I and a friend of mine have signed a contract and sent our certificates, but have not had a returned signed contract. So does this mean I don't have a job? This is really worrying! Is there anyone who still works there and can offer advice as to what we should do? Emma27 have you had any contact from ENS recently?

[shawarma]

Hello chucklette and welcome to the Abu Dhabi school forums. Welcome also to previous posters and thanks for your feedback .

Not having received your contract yet is sloppy and worrying. It's been a while since I signed a new one myself so I can't remember if I had it before arriving in the UAE. You should at least have had a letter outlining the terms and conditions, salary and benefits package of your new job. However, I wouldn't be very hopeful that the letter is worth anything much if there is a dispute in the future about your contract. You should get a contract when you arrive, if not before, since to process your labour permit, the UAE labour ministry needs to have a copy of your contract.

What potentially can happen is that you arrive, and the contract you are presented with is substantially different from what you were led to believe. Whatever the ethics, morality, or legality of this scenario, usually the only realistic option by then is to take it or leave it. It doesn't bode well for the future when a company behaves like that though. Here's a bit more information about teaching in Abu Dhabi.

You could consider doing something like this.

1. Send a letter or fax to ENS requesting a copy of your contract.
2. Keep looking for other jobs on the assumption you don't or might not have one at ENS, or you don't know what the terms and conditions of the job are.
3. If you get a satisfactory reply from ENS then stop looking for another job.
4. If you find another job you are happy with and have not yet received anything from ENS, then send a follow up letter or fax informing ENS that you are very sorry but your circumstances have changed and you will not be able to take up the position offered. Do not elaborate, do not say you have got another job, do not say where you are going. Do not say it's because they didn't send you a contract (they are not paying you to be a consultant for them). If they haven't issued you an employment entry visa yet, there shouldn't be any difficulty. If they've asked you to enter on a visit visa then they wouldn't be applying for any visas or permits until after you enter Abu Dhabi.

[Iceskater]

I am in the same position for a job in Aug 09 - don't know what to do!

[shawarma]

Hello iceskater and welcome to the Abu Dhabi school forum .

Sorry about your dilemma . All I can suggest is what I said in my previous post. Good luck and let us know what happens.

[chucklette]

I would not recommend any teacher who has any ounce of self respect or professionalism to even consider working at ENS. I fortunately have not had the misfortune to even step foot into that organisation, but my dealings with them regarding a possible position has left me with the conclusion that if an organisation falls at the first hurddle then it will be hell for the duration of the contract. They are unprofessional in the way they handle queries and questions ie. not answering or acknowledging emails; offering a contract and then changing the salary; asking for the same information again and again (when information has been sent to them) - all very time consuiming and stressful. I was offered a job, signed the contract(s), sent passprot info, photos requested etc. sold my car at a knock down price (it's going to cost more to get another), got a tenant for my house, and then waited and waited for ENS to send me a date for flights, accomodation info, and answers to other questions. NO ANSWERS! Thankfully I had not not officially resigned from my current position. So I would like to say a very BIG thanks to ENS for their honesty, integrity, professionalism and the wonderful treatment of a prospective employee. But I suppose if you are thought of as a potato (or was it onions?) in a sack, you can't expect them to treat you with any respect. DON'T BECOME A POTATO (or onion). Let's all show ENS that the sack is now empty!

[treehugger]

Some visitors to this site may take comments contained within it with a grain of salt and that is a good thing. There is nothing like direct experience. All I can give you is my own opinion of the experiences I have had at e.n.s school.
If you are giving up a lot to come to this school be careful and keep an escape route open should things not work out, that goes for your job, home and anything else of importance.

So what is my opinion? Well many people come to e.n.s and complete a two year contract successfully, take the money home and are not harmed in any longstanding way. However all of them encounter problems in some way which are not only teaching related but should never occur within a functional school, these problems stem from deep systemic ineptitude in both manangement and administration.
There is no such thing as an absolute truth at e.n.s school what you are told now will not be true tommorrow and this is challenging for those of us who are used to a Western educational paradigm. So, contract? Forget it, it is only broadly what you will encounter in your pay and conditions. Please remember there is no due process for collective bargaining or even legal framework upon which to base a complaint.

Accomodation? you will get it but it may be in the middle of a building site a long way from shops or cafe's. If you are a couple or family you will not get a two bedroomed apartment.

Pay? Mostly you will be paid in full and on time. If you join e.n.s mid year you WILL NOT get the same pay benefits for holiday and end of contract gratuities as others who began earlier.

Conditions? You will have no Language support or special needs staff this year. Student numbers are extraordinary and expected (unbelievably) to keep growing meaning that the number of periods you will work will keep growing also. Student behavioural issues are profound.

YOU WILL BE TOLD NONE OF THIS AT INTERVIEW, as with anything in life its the information they dont give you which is important.

Thanks for reading and if you decide to come anyway good luck.

[nilekaw]

Do not even think of applying to work at this school. All the horror stories about upper admin are true: they have absolutely no commitment to quality education. Teachers are treated, to quote the chairman of the board [mod edit: name removed], 'like a bag of onions'. It matters not the time, energy or commitment a teacher makes to the students and the school. Just recently a group of single men were told they were being moved from their present accommodation in Abu Dhabi city out to Musaffah, an area with virtually no redeeming qualities. Included in this group were several men who have worked for ENS for 3 or more years and have lived in their present accommodation in the city for the same amount of time. There is also the issue of health insurance. When you are recruited you are told that the school gives internationally recognized health insurance so if you are traveling home in the summer and there is an emergency you are covered. Wrong. Many teachers are brought in thinking they will be teaching what they were hired to teach only to be given an entirely different grade level and content area. Principals change more frequently than New England weather, being fired for no apparent reason fairly regularly. New American Directors have been brought in but neither of them has any experience working in this part of the world. Don't even apply. And warn anyone who even thinks about it!

[yoabudhabidude]

This is absolutely the worst school I have ever worked at. At the end of the 2009 school year the almighty board decided to get rid of the management staff of most of the campuses. There are campuses in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and Moh'd Bin Zayed City. (Musaffah). Principals were just told when they returned that they were not needed anymore. One principal, [mod edit: name removed], was retained and he had to run both the primary and boys school. When the chairman of the board returned from medical treatment he was angry that [mod edit: name removed] had not been fired and so [mod edit: name removed] got a call to say he should not return to school the next day.

A new principal, [mod edit: name removed] was hired from a school in Dubai. This must be the most incompetent principal I have ever had the misfortune to work with. One of the first things he did as principal was scrap the existing code of conduct and replace it with, NOTHING. For six months the school was in chaos as they tried to develop a new one. I guess he had to show teachers he is in charge and so it was change for the sake of change.

The school was supposed to be dual IB/IGCSE but they had tried for years and the school is neither. It has no set curriculum although on it's website it tries to trick parents into believing it has a set curriculum. The teachers just have to come up with their own stuff. Teachers found out that the principal [mod edit: name removed], had been principal at a school in Dubai that had gotten an unsatisfactory grade from the Dubai education authorities and they could see why in his lack of management skills.

A group of Americans were duly brought in, known by the staff members as the COLORADO MAFIA, since they are all from Colorado and they are supposed to overhaul the schools.

A year has almost gone by and they could not even have a siren installed to announce the start of periods etc. Things are so bad that copies had to be made at other schools until all the copiers packed up and teachers had to print stuff from their office printers.

Rumors were circulating that there was a hit list of teachers that they were going to get rid of. This list was supposed to have been in existence by the beginning of this year already. The director of the MBZ campus called a meeting in which he assured teachers that there was no list. He is probably related to George Bush senior who said "Read my lips there will not be any increase in taxes" and we all know how true that was. Anyway the truth is there was a list, could be a few lists, and lots of teachers got emails to say they should come to the office for a meeting. There they received a letter thanking them for their good service to ENS but that their services would not be required in the future. Of course teachers were pissed cause had they known this in January it would have given them ample time to apply for new jobs. No reasons for their termination were given.

Vandalism is rife and the bit of discipline that there was is disappearing fast. For the whole year the boys high has not had an IT teacher, the Library teacher left, a French teacher was fired earlier and the Arabic Additional Language teacher resigned two weeks ago because of the rudeness of the principal.

If ever you are offered a position at this school avoid it like the plague because you will get absolutely no support from management. It is easier for them to get rid of a teacher than to get rid of a student abusing teachers, engaging in vandalism, smoking etc.

Again the worst possible school, with the worst possible management, and the COLORADO MAFIA will find out that they are the same as all the other teachers, expendable.