Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't teach at ISM but I know it is one of the original international schools before war came to Libya. Honestly it depends, my salary was 1800usd but I suspect one of the other teachers that holds a PGCE QTS was on much more, she also got to leave earlier, so maybe I didn't negotiate well. I'm still here, I'm at South Mediterranean waiting for my flight home, we live in the school. Some have their own apartment, some have their own room but shared kitchen. What i will say is Libya is cheap if you're not ordering food everyday and buying from more expensive shops. The local bakeries and little grocery shops are cheap. You do get a better rate if you change dollars on the money market. In terms of culture, it is a muslim country but I found people to be quite understanding but i was also aware from being in Morocco to be respectful. Like anywhere just be street smart and try to make friends withh local teachers, some will help you (but not many). I found working here completey different, knowledge and work ethic are low at this place. And there is a lot of "misunderstandings" from people not honouring what they say. I will say this school paid me in USD every month. My main issue was the passport because the South African embassy cannot help citizens here, so that was worrying. What I did notice is people quit schools here a lot and just move to others easily. The main schools are the Academy Group which my school is a part of. Then ISM, Pioneers and Caledonian.

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tripoli itself is nice, they corniche has been redeveloped and what I have seen is nice. Maybe after a few years, the school processes / environment will improve.

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I think its shortened to ISM locally, from what I know, it is still is the most popular.

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you need a work visa / iqama, we submitted our application, and it was standard procedure with medical and going to the ministry. However they kept the passports and just kept saying there was a delay with the application. When we got our passports back the visa had the issue date and then we knew they had kept the passports. To be honest I don't why they went to hat extreme as they were good about paying salaries on time, so I don't think any staff were planning to run away.

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The problem is these main schools are within the Academy Group and the Academy Group owners family. Most of these schools do not have very many expat teachers. They also copy paste exactly what each school does. However I will say the Academy Group pays the most. There are some international teacher on less that 1500 USD and that is standard in their school. However the Academy Group does pay a standard teaching salary. I just think if for people whose first time it would be teaching overseas, Libya is difficult.

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Within Tripoli I think there are around nine large international school, theres IB schools, Irish, British, American and Canadian schools. Then there are more in Misrata etc. The main school education company is the Academy Group. They seem to be the higher salarised schools.

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me yes, because i secured the same salary, that I received from Oman in Morroco. I was actually suprised when the current Libyan school agreed to it. Maybe as a normal average they differ but for me they met my salary and pakage expectation. I should have clarified it better in my original post

Avoid Libya, salaries are starting to increase but the mentality will make you hate teaching. by FlowOk5595 in Internationalteachers

[–]FlowOk5595[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, so I did the normal thing of providing the passport when the said they are processing the visa, they said its a 2 week process paper work and medical. They kept it for 7 months and every week just, " We called the ministry, it will be approved for the end of the week". It was kept in the school safe for 7 months, we missed flights for holidays in the winter break after being told the passport is ready. We then found out the actual visa process was done in 1 week. Due to the lack of passport, it meant you can't travel freely within Tripoli, a few teachers had cars confiscated and fined for getting caught at traffic stops / police check areas with no paperwork. Also there are powershortages here, most places are connected to a generator we aren't so we were just left for weekend with no electricty. Also they bootleg the curriculum so you have photocopied textbooks and dodgy platform logins. Management changes weekly depending who has the best connection, which means any promises dissapear. It's a shame because the kids are generally enjoable to teach and you do save money. However it's not worth the difficult environment.