The SABIS system and its damaging effect on childrens education

The International School of Choueifat styles its schools and its famous SABIS system as a modern education environment that “fosters the development of a lifelong love of learning”. The reality could not be further from the truth.

Choueifat and the SABIS system is a “dictatorial”, profit-orientated organisation that “brainwashes” its students and treats them and its staff with no respect. So say employees and students that have experienced the controversy that is Choueifat.

Furthermore, Choueifat’s approach to education is similar to McDonald’s approach to food retail. In their own words Choueifat states that its SABIS system is based upon:

tried and tested methodologies that maximize and standardize what happens in the classroom.

Well this approach brings to mind George Ritzer’s ‘McDonaldization’ concept. Ritzer’s argument that the principles of the fast-food industry are coming to dominate more sectors of society is exemplified in the whole SABIS system. By standardizing every aspect of the education system Choueifat tighten their control on childrens learning and increase the chances of predicatability allowing them to spew out a standard uniform curricula to numerous schools without regard to differences in childrens’ apptitude.

This is the conclusion I came to after wanting to learn more about Choueifat. I read in the Kurdish Globe that a Choueifat school had opened in Hewler (Erbil). I was initially impressed. This, I thought, is a step towards better development in my home country.

After doing a simple search on Google I came across a critical website, sabisstinks.wordpress.com. This is the second result you get on Google below Choueifat’s official website if you do a search for “SABIS education”.

SABIS Stinks has aggregated information posted on the internet from forums, blogs and testimonials, all from people who have experienced the SABIS system. They are mostly former teachers with concerns about the damaging effects SABIS has on children.

So what exactly is SABIS? And why have I become a sceptic?

Those that support SABIS education say that it has helped them secure places in top international universities. This unsurprisingly is also one of Choueifat’s arguments for the SABIS system.

The SABIS system is characterised by their “points system” which in Choueifat’s words is:

a 3-step cycle of Teach, Practice, and Check. The teacher explains the point to the class, gives an example in which the point is used, and then assigns a written activity to check for individual student understanding.

Choueifat’s argument for using this system is that time is not wasted listening to lengthy explanations from teachers or take dictated notes. So basically the Points System is geared towards the minimization of time.

This adheres with another component of Ritzer’s McDonaldization concept, Efficiency. Tasks are accomplished using the most optimal method.

However, it cannot be argued that kids are not taking dictated notes because this is the uniform and standard system across every Choueifat school. It is dictated from the top down throughout the organization.

For this reason anyone can become a SABIS teacher and many are recent graduates with no teaching experience. But this is not a problem because Choueifat provides them with Shadow teachers/prefects who monitor their performance.

People that have worked for Choueifat schools add that the prefects act more like spies and report on teachers’ performance if they deviate from the SABIS way. These prefects also encourage students to do the same, nurturing a culture of snitching among the students.

One blog written by two Choueifati students believes that if a Choueifat student were to go to another school the likely chances are that they would become a “social outcast”.

Continuous exams

Both students and teachers also complain about the SABIS exam system. The SABIS student writes about the weekly AMS tests ranging from 4 to 9 tests per week as children progress to the next grade.

Teachers complain that the repetitive nature of the tests leave children unengaged and even though the exam papers contain information from lessons in the previous week many children seem to fail anyway.

This system of continuous examination is hated by most students and seen as mostly pointless by former teachers. A Facebook group with 678 members of disaffected SABIS students all complain about the excessive examinations. In fact there is more than one group on Facebook dedicated to SABIS bashing by its own students. The students also refer to one another as “inmates” or “cellmates” comparing themselves to prisoners as the examinations are also held on weekends and punishable by retakes during holiday seasons.

Choueifat is no doubt a successful organisation. It would not have survived for 120 years otherwise. However what are the costs of this success? Such an organisation that does not cater for children with special needs and which drills information into childrens’ minds until they pass or do not cut the mustard can only be classified as elitist.

Those that are able will get through, those that are not are left with the psychological scars of the SABIS experience.

Why we should be concerned

My major concern is that this organisations approach to education and its lack of respect for its students and teachers has not been looked into by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

The SABIS Stinks website can be pushed aside as bunch of disaffected people with their own personal issues with Choueifat. But is it wise to commit our children to an education system for most of their childhood without questioning why there is so much bad press about it?

What will this first generation of Kurdish SABIS kids end up like?

Will we have a small group of elitist brainwashed kids proceed into later life while the rest of them are scarred by the experience and left with a “butchered self-esteem, pride and confidence” as the Choueifat student bloggers puts it?

There is so much more to be written about Choueifat and SABIS that I could not fit into this article, which I will try to cover in later articles.

One thing is for sure though, whatever the arguments for and against SABIS, there is obviously a real problem that needs to be looked into and the KRG must start asking questions before accepting such organizations into our childrens’ lives.