Cambridge International Center- Khartoum Sudan

[Reordan]

If you want to teach in Sudan, do so as it is an interesting place, the people are warm, generous and friendly and the students are eager and motivated and polite.

However do NOT accept a job with Cambridge International Center as you will only leave in a short time disullsioned and fed up with the behaviour of the drunken owner.

Staff turnover is high and the average length of time for a teacher staying seems to be less than 3 months which gives you a pretty good indication of how bad things are there.

He is only concerned with making money and how to make that at any cost. Staff are there just to make money for him and once he has your name on a contract he doesn’t really care about you, unless you want to leave and then all hell breaks loose and things turn really nasty. He will take money off you for things like visa costs etc but can never produce any real costs that he has incurred.

He has trouble with his decision making as a decision will be made one day then changed the next day. This is confusing for staff as well as frustrating.

He surrounds himself with many family members who work for him and whose main job seems to be to spy on the local and foreign staff (the owner even has 4 or 5 security cameras installed in the Khartoum branch so he can sit in his office spying on the staff).

It is not uncommon for the local staff to have their meagre wages cut on the say so of one of the family members, who often just invent something to get back at the nice, hard working staff member (usually because the family member has been shown up to be incompetent, has lied and been caught out, or is just lazy).

Teachers are employed on a 39 hour contract over 6 days with up to 27 teaching hours Note these are full hours, not 45 or 50 minutes classes as in other countries and you are meant to get paid overtime if you exceed your weekly teaching hours. There are always excuses as to often why this overtime isn’t paid.

There is a bonus offered for staying a year but no one has heard of anyone staying that long so don’t know whether you will be paid it or not. There will be probably be a reason invented for not paying it as there is with other things, like overtime, airfare refunds etc etc.

If you do decide to go there check that you are not given a student visa as it seems he is trying to do now (it is probably cheaper). Working on a student visa is highly illegal and you will end up in serious trouble with the authorities.

There are better places to teach at in Sudan, where you will be valued, respected and treated well as well as being paid a fair wage for your teaching.

[CapKuk1]

Hi,

I have been offered a post at Cambridge Int School in Sudan but luckily found your review before signing any contract!

Can you tell me more about the school? I wanted to go because I studied Politics & Arabic at uni, but because i'm a single young female i'm finding it nigh on impossible to get a job in the Middle East, so I started applying to TEFL jobs in Arabic speaking countries in Africa too. Do you know of any reliable schools in Sudan, or indeed any in the Arabic speaking world?

Any info would be a great help!

Yours faithfully,

CapKuk1

[peter10]

capkuk.... are u in khartoum now pls contact me by302003@yahoo.co.uk hope u not working for that school....oops long time...

[peter10]

Well, hahaha its a good school though.......i guess u can never be take to the police if u resign ...... lol