Standard Qatar E-mail

I have had a lot of teachers contacting me through the TES, asking me what it is like to teach in Qatar. This is the "standard reply" that I have sent to many, many teachers around the world.

Thank you for your e-mail. Welcome to the exciting world of international education!

The first thing that I would like to say is that I am not an employment agency – some people seem to think that I am – and therefore my advice, help and opinions are free of charge. They are, however, not always reliable and up-to-date. I was just a Year 5 Class Teacher! I try to give accurate and honest information to people, but of course I am not infallible.

Now I want to tell you a bit about who I am and what I did. My wife and I were both teaching for two years at Newton International School (West Bay) in Doha, Qatar. Next I was at Newton British School for two years and then I was at Newton Lagoon. We do not have any children. I was the KS2 coordinator at West Bay and so I had a monthly salary of 12,000 QR and my wife was teaching Music and had 9000 QR. Altogether, that was 21,000QR which worked out at around four thousand euros, tax free, per month. We usually managed to save between £2,000 and £2,5000 per month. Having said that, we hardly ever went to restaurants and in fact we lived pretty boring lives! 

Most international schools in the Middle East provide teachers with rent-free accommodation and the utilities are also paid for you. Petrol was about twenty pence a litre and there are no taxes worth mentioning, so what is there to spend your money on? (I should mention that Newton certainly does not pay top whack. I have heard that the new QP school, Mesaieed International, pays 16,000 QR for starters, plus various allowances.) Next I was at Newton Lagoon and there I was being paid 13,300 QR per month. That was a little bit less and also the Qatari riyal was a bit weaker against the euro, so that worked out to about 2,000 euros per month. If the riyal had moved up against the euro, then of course my salary might have been worth quite a bit more. (As we do not live in England anymore, the euro is the currency I know best!) I think it is about six QR to the pound, but the rate does move up and down a bit.

I have the impression that salaries have not improved much since we left Qatar, more than five years ago, and it seems to me that some schools are squeezing their budgets, trying to reduce staff costs.

Now if you do happen to have any kind of property in the UK, then you simply must let it out through an agent while you are away in foreign parts, even if you have to beg, steal or borrow the money to do the place up. Remember that the money you spend on decorating etc. can be set against tax, as can your agent's fees. I hope that you do not mind my saying that having a house standing empty just does not make economic sense. On the other hand, there are fewer pleasures in life that are sweeter and more enjoyable than the delightful thought that someone else is paying off your mortgage for you!

As for the cost of living in Doha, I would say that it very much depends on what you spend your money on. If you are going to be flying off back to the UK every five minutes or jetting off to somewhere exotic for every holiday three times a year, then of course you will not be able to save a big pile of cash. Food is mostly imported and so you will pay more or less the same prices as in the UK, but food that has been imported from nearby countries (e.g. Lebanon or Saudi Arabia) tends to be reasonably priced. If you like dining out in good restaurants and drinking in the bars of posh hotels, then again it will cost you. Some things, such as petrol, are a lot cheaper here than in the UK. 

Owen and Tracy, just before they left for China

Until you have lived in a tax-free country, it is difficult to understand what that means: no Income Tax, no VAT, petrol at 20p a litre, no flipping Council Tax and usually you do not even have to pay to park your car. You can also forget about electricity bills, water bills and gas bills if you live in an apartment provided by the school. If you have never lived in a country where there is no tax of any kind – well, I have never come across any and I was there for five years – then of course it is a bit difficult to imagine what that might be like.

Alcohol is available in Doha and it was expensive, whether you drink in one of the posh hotels or you buy it yourself from the QDC (the curiously-named Qatar Distribution Company, aka the Booze Shop). You have to get a liquor permit in order to be able to buy alcohol and of course there are some pretty nasty penalties if you are drunk in public.

My faithful old Hyundai Galloper

In the UK you have to declare yourself to be “non-resident for taxation purposes” if you want to make sure that the Great British Taxman will not be able to get his sticky hands on the money you have earned while in foreign parts. Of course there is not much point in arranging this if you are going to be coming back to work in the UK in a month or two! You only really feel the financial benefit of becoming non-resident if you stay away from the UK for a considerable period. You can come back for holidays, of course. Really you need to talk to an accountant in order make sure that you get the full financial advantages of working overseas.

Is there anything to do in Doha? Well, there are loads of shopping malls, but there are also one or two other things as well. There are heaps of international sporting events in Doha and they are usually free or very cheap. The World Cup is just one of them, but there are plenty more. The Corniche is pretty and very pleasant, plus there is Souq Waqif. The zoo is a great place for a picnic and there are some reasonable beaches (not in or around Doha, alas). The new Islamic Art Museum is incredible and my wife and I went to an excellent exhibition of the Dutch Masters. There is even an opera house. I went to a great Dvorak concert there. There are also masses of clubs for sailing, tennis, golf, diving, rugby and just about any sport or activity you can think of.

If you were to sign me up as a friend on Facebook, you will be able to see loads of photos of our misadventures in Egypt, Saudi, Romania, Oman, Qatar and China. You will also be able to see lots of photos of our home in Bulgaria. A six-bedroomed house in the mountains for £20,000. (Yes, that is correct. Twenty thousand pounds.)

Now I have given you quite a lot of information about teaching in Qatar, so you need to chew this over and ask yourself whether Qatar might tick all (or most) of your boxes. In a nutshell, the best place to earn some serious cash is definitely the Middle East, but there are also some schools in the Far East that will pay well and offer a good “package” of benefits. Although Africa and South America could be a lot of fun, the overall financial situation would probably not be quite as good.

As for American schools, all I can say is good luck. The facilities are fabulous and the staff are well paid. That is what I have heard. Of course the American schools want to employ American teachers and that is bad news if you are a limey, with no American teacher certification.

The main difference between local hire and international hire is that you might not get all of the expat benefits with local hire: no accommodation, no flights and that’s about it. Some schools do things differently to others and there is no hard-and-fast rule as to what does and what does not constitute “local hire”.

The economy in Qatar is booming – Qatar has the world’s second largest reserves of natural gas – and the World Cup is just one of the projects that is currently going on there. Doha is rapidly expanding and therefore there are loads of job opportunities.

I am sending you a few embarrassing photos of Mr and Mrs Hippo in Qatar, just to give you some idea what it might be like to work in the Middle East. On another occasion, I will tell you about our five years in China.  

With best wishes,

Simon Hill      

(aka the Hippo)