Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Rage against the institute

Today I learnt what it means to be a professional in Egypt and although I had long ago learnt that a junior doctor earns at 250 egyptian junay I couldn’t understand how they managed to live on it, and the person I am closest to I know has been saving for an apartment along with her husband so they can finally move in together what I didn’t realise was what she was earning.

I assumed all was financially well as she was working in a international school and I paid in euros not even in the standard dollars! So when yesterday my lump sum tuition fees ran out we started to talk about Egypt and the current situation when I asked her how much she earns an hour. She looked really uncomfortable and being even more curious now I got her to tell me.

Honestly I was not prepared for the shock its ludicrous, and she doesn’t even get paid for holidays or sick leave. I am royally peed to say the least. It been me and sara for 4 months now, I don’t see anyone else from the institute nor do I have any contact with them, nor do they enrich my life in anyway so where my money is going I don’t know but its not going to the one person it should.

I am considering pulling out of the school now since my 4months advance payment has run out. I do have my level 3 wad sitting around but the payment system is soooo unjust that there is no way am going to contribute to it and I don’t give a toss what that may mean for my Arabic while am here!!!

13 comments:

* said...

That's sad. It's a shame you can't hire her privately.

MASS said...

Rage against the machine ?

Anonymous said...

unfortunately it seems to be the muslims who are the most unjust at times-sorry for generalisation but im prejudiced at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Most Egyptians live their lives at this level or less. and I can tell you that teachers often receive ranging from 150 to 300 L.E, you can simply say teaching is a like a message fot them to deliver, and therefore teachers must dilver it for free! you will be shocked more to see children succeed in exams only if their parents get them a teacher who gives them special classes, even in privet schools.
Generally your friend/teacher seems nice and faithfull God bles shere, and good luck.

How is your arabic language any way?

Anonymous said...

"teaching is a like a message for them to deliver, and therefore teachers must deliver it for free!"

If teachers were truly altruistic (or masochistic-take your pick), they would become nuns.

Trust me, I am not a teacher cos its a vocation-I am a teacher so i can torture the little s***s.

Anonymous said...

I am loving your blog. It is really informative. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Salaams

calm down!! dear is only a teachers' pay.
well the world is never fair and every institution or company has an unfair pay policy but good to see u wanna fight back and make a protest, lakin just make sure u pass ur exams aight.

tara

Ever The Idealist said...

NM you found it out sis. They get paid crap. We are no better off here realy its just that the rates are better. Recently in UK we had footballers pledging money to subsidise nurses pay like we are charity cases. The goverments who tax us should pay us afair wage and that should be true fopr the rest of the globe.

Hayak - i always knew thats why you taught!! :D

Dee Nooh - agree there with you bro. NM make sure you pass your exams and return a fusxa arabic speaker ok?

Me missing you lots hon

white african said...

welcome to the world of dictators, it seems where ever dictators rule the pay sucks, in libya the system is that every one gets paid the same salary no matter what your job description is, sounds great if the salary was enough to satasfy ones needs as well as family needs, but it isint, its not even enough to feed a cockroach,

frustrating

Anonymous said...

Egypt's ruling party has destroyed the middle class and they will suffer the consequences for generations to come. Save for the corrupt politicians and their cronies and the parasitic nouveau riche, everyone like this teacher and her husband struggle. It's too bad because Egypt was a tremendous center for education from the late 19th century to as late as the 70s and 80s.

NM said...

Argh....its been about 3days now and am chocking on the idea of handing anymore money to the institution so am taking a holiday, i took my level 2 exam and got 90% sara still wanted me to do better but hey...Aswan sounds nice right about now!!

Reem said...

I currently live in Egypt so I know how things are in this country.
My Egyptian teacher was paid about 500 LE to teach the French language in an American highschool. This is alot of money for teachers btw but again it was a private international school.
My driver was paid 200 LE when he used to work for a huge company here in Cairo.
There is a huge gap between the rich and the poor here.

NM said...

I have resolved the situation in my own world, suffice to say the insitute and are parting ways!