Technology at Manarat School Riyadh

We wanted to highlight the issue with technology at Manarat Riyadh School because it is so bad and it actually hinders your ability to teach. The ironic thing about it all is that in the Manarat vision statement that is printed and appears on every entry of the school and the walls inside boasts of 'technologically modern' facilities. In this blog we will show just how obsolete the technology equipment is and their contradiction. The following picture shows the very big vision statement of the school that you will see upon entrance:

This is the reality at Manarat: 

This is a CRT monitor - this is the old style glass tube monitor that is now obsolete. But, this is what you will see in the classrooms at Manarat Riyadh School. 

This is another CRT monitor in another classroom: the base computer is open and the computer is used - this is a very serious health and safety hazard that needs to addressed as there are children in the classroom the whole day. All it takes is for a young child to stick his hand into the fan or the power supply inside the PC whilst it's on and you could have serious injuries or death. This is certainly not 'technologically modern' as Manarat School claims on their vision statement that is literally on every piece of letter, wall and entrance of the school. 

The following picture seems to show stock of CRT monitors - these are from early to mid 1990's:

The following is an excerpt of an email sent by a teacher concerned by the serious lack of technology and highlighting the major contradiction of the school vision statement: 

Technologically Friendly Environment:

Mission: "........a stimulating, technologically modern, enjoyable, and secure environment"

1) If we want to achieve our mission of a technologically friendly environment, then we really need to address the technological issues in our building. Firstly, some of the classes I teach in either don't have a computer, or the computer's not working.

2) We have only 1 member of staff who is working tirelessly in other buildings apart from ours. How can we expect him to fix our technological problems within a time efficient manner?

3) I have used 3 USB flash drives since last year, and all have been infected with viruses. Moreover, the internet is very slow. I am therefore discouraged to prepare audio visual resources for my pupils." - end quote. 

Following is some images that highlights the dire technology situation that is far far from the vision of Manarat of the so called 'technologically modern' - the pictures speak for themselves:

Believe it or not this is a smart board!

In this next article we hope to show you some videos that highlight the dire situation of Manarat. Watch this space!

Teaching in Manarat School Riyadh introduction

First and foremost the first aspect that you need to condition yourself (one of many things!) is to forget about everything that you have been taught as a teacher previously. This might sound a little crazy, but this is very important in order to stay sane whilst you are in Manarat. When you first arrive at the school, no one tells you anything and you are left on your own. In a typical teacher appointment at a new school you would expect to be given a tour of the school, a staff handbook amongst other important things for a new member of staff, this is something that does not happen at Manarat. As teachers we have become accustomed to certain things being in place in the Schools, things like; a computer at your desk for you to do your work; a chair that is not broken and safe to sit on etc. In a normal environment these things are a given, however Manarat is not a normal school (in fact I don't think we can call it a school to be honest) and certainly the environment is not normal! The following are just some of the fundamental things that a school would require to operate and exist as a school, but these are things that are not available at Manarat School Riyadh and the way it is heading will never be available:

No system of Communication

There is no school computer network, that's right I will repeat that there is no computer network in the whole school! - we're talking about a school that has 2000+ pupils on roll, more than 200 teaching staff (this includes both teachers from the boys and the girls section) and none of these staff have a school email, shared resource area and everything else that you would expect a school of this size to have by default. We will highlight the technological state of Manarat School Riyadh in detail in another post.

There are no telephones available to ring other teachers in the school or parents. The teachers are expected to use their own telephone credit to contact parents! You are not given any money toward the cost of the call and they will certainly not re-imburse you for any costs incurred whilst contacting a parent. There is no system of student records in terms of student data, history, needs, any medical issues. All in all you have no idea about the styudents that are in your classroom and you are just expected to teach and then at the end of term prepare a 'test' for the students.

Another communication issue is that the children in the school can barely speak English and at times you have to repeat yourself several times for them to follow basic instructions.

No teacher timetable when you start the term/semester 

This is something that we were dumbfounded by when we were told that we will receive our timetables on the first day of school! So you have no idea how many periods your are teaching or what classes you have. We have never seen such chaos and disorganization on the first day if school in our entire life. The irony is that we were coming in a week before into the school and spending the whole day at the school due the school not having planned anything in place for that week - the school admin themselves had just come back from holiday and nothing was planned. They were planning for what will happen in the upcoming year during the week that they returned from holiday. After they agreed on a 'makeshift' plan the teachers were told to come in on Saturday to start working on what they had just put together after they were coming in for 5 days which were wholly unproductive at no fault of the teachers - due to incompetence, poor organization and planning skills on the part of the school management. The timetable changes out of the blue one week you are teaching 5 periods on Monday and the next your are teaching teaching 7 periods, there is no consistency, you can't plan anything - the number of lessons change and so does the the timings for the lessons. At the time of this writing there is an emergency timetable in place, as the school did not recruit enough teachers (there is an extremely high turn over of staff, many teachers leave after just 1 year and some even within weeks of arriving) they are short of 11 teachers - which means that there will be many periods that need to be covered by teachers in additional to their allocated timetabled periods.

Arriving at the Airport in KSA and hotel

When you have finalized everything in your home country, you will no doubt be on the plane to KSA and you will arrive at the airport based on where you will be teaching, but we will run through the process for Manarat Riyadh.

1. Your plane lands at Riyadh International Airport and you have not been given any contact details previously or information about what will happen. You do not have any form of communication. i.e. Sim card for KSA. If you don't speak Arabic this makes your situation even more difficult as there is hardly anyone at the airport (based on our experience anyway) that speaks English.

2. If you are fortunate enough to contact someone at the school to arrange to pick you up then the average waiting time in the airport is 2 hours, but this could less or more.

3. When someone gets you from the airport eventually, you will be taken to a hotel in Riyadh near the school. You are booked stay in the hotel for 3 days only, no one informs you of the arrangements and what will happen next. In the recruitment process they tell you that the school will assist you in getting a place stay and this is not true at all. When you contact the recruitment team they will just tell you someone will come and pick you up - no number, no name, just 'someone will come and pick you up'! And in most cases no one from the school will come to you - just the person that dropped you at the hotel the first day.

4. After 3 night the hotel will tell you need to pay for the next night or move out of the hotel. Bear in mind that you are in the country only 72 hours of less and you are expected to either pay out of your own pocket to stay at the hotel or find a place to stay, and if you do not speak Arabic or have any contacts at the school then you are in a really difficult situation. You are also expected to get to the school on your own some how for your first day at school.

In the next part we will discuss what happens on your first day at school.

Welcome to Manarat School Riyadh blogspot page

This blog has been setup to inform potential teachers of the reality in Manarat Schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and will narrate the reality as it is. The Manarat management have imparted a professional image abroad and they have marketed the school as a leader in International Education. This blog will highlight the reality of working in Manarat, but will also look at how children are taught in the school. This is a true account of events in Manarat as narrated by teachers. This is mainly aimed at potential teachers from the West (In particular U.S and UK) but this information is also relevant to parents who send their children to Manarat School or are thinking of sending their children. This blog will be updated regularly with first hand details including; images and video.