Comparing the Schools and Comments: Working in Kuala Lumpur (2026)

Around the world, there are cities that have more than one international school. Many times there is an American school, a British School, and an international school that uses an international curriculum.

Some cities, though, have MANY international schools! When that is the case, how do the comments about each school compare to each other?

This blog series looks at comparing some of these comments, all coming from international schools in the same city.

Currently, we have 20 schools listed in Kuala Lumpur on International School Community.

Schools with the most submitted comments:
Newlands International School (53 comments)
Garden International School (59 comments)
International School of Kuala Lumpur (129 comments)
Mont’Kiara International School (87 comments)
Sunway International School (49 comments)
Taylor’s College (16 comments)
Alice Smith School (131 comments)
The British International School of Kuala Lumpur (34 comments)

High Expectations for Teachers?

“The school’s workload is average. We certainly hear of neighboring (similar caliber) schools who expect a lot more out of their teaching staff. In addition to a normal teaching day, teachers are also expected to lead 2 after-school activities (running 10 weeks long each) per year. Coaching satisfies this requirement. This is standard for international schools in Malaysia, as the government requires schools to offer ASAs. Some teachers work until 3:30 (official end of day), and others are consistently there until 5 or later. However, this is a matter of choice and personal work ethic, most often not because of additional duties required by the school.” – Mont’Kiara International School

“In secondary all teachers provide an enrichment lesson within the timetable. Any other extra curricular offered is voluntary and up to the teachers.” – The British International School of Kuala Lumpur

“I don’t think the workload is particularly heavy, although the school has high expectations. A 100% teaching load comes with two non-contact hours per day, slightly less in lower grades. In ES, some of these blocks are taken up by co-planning and team meetings. After-school meetings are twice monthly, relatively low compared to other schools.” – International School of Kuala Lumpur

“Teachers usually take on one extra-curricular.” – Taylor’s College

“Teachers are trusted, but a great commitment is expected. One after-school club/week/term.” – Newlands International School

“Teachers work an 80 timetable, but registration in the morning counts as only one period despite taking more like 2.5 periods over the course of the week. Every teacher has to work two ‘seasons’ which are roughly 8 week blocks of ECAs. This is a recent change to the ECA model which has not been well received by parents.” – Alice Smith School

Language Background of the Students

“The students are mainly from the expatriate community of Kuala Lumpur and come from over 50 different countries. Malaysian students are only allowed to attend international schools if they have obtained approval from Malaysia’s Ministry of Education. The GIS roll currently comprises approximately 40% Malaysian students; the second largest nationality group is British.” – Garden International School

“The Principal reminds the pupils every day to speak in English, but some lapse back into Chinese.” – Newlands International School

“Chinese dialects, Bahasa Malaysia, some international sts.” – Taylor’s College

“English is the common language spoken in the hallway.” – The British International School of Kuala Lumpur

“As mentioned previously, English is comfortably the dominant language, but there is a growing proportion of the school that don’t speak it as their first language. Unsurprisingly, groups do form who will chat in whichever language they are most comfortable with.” – Alice Smith School

“The school requires students entering after kinder have been previously educated in English. I would say about 75% of the students are fluent in English, and the rest are in the ELL program. Students almost all speak English, even if they have friends who speak their native languages. I am not sure of the exact number, but I would guess about half of the students are native English speakers.” – Mont’Kiara International School

Housing Allowance

“The school provides an accommodation allowance of RM2,500 per month for single teachers, RM2,700 per month for married teachers with no children whose spouse is not working, RM2,500 per month each for married teachers, both of whom are employed by the school, and RM3,000 per month for married teachers with children whose spouse is not working in the school.” – Garden International School

“For married housing, you get around 987 USD a month; For single housing, you get around 846 USD a month; For each dependent child, you get 109 USD extra a month. No utilities allowance is given.” – Mont’Kiara International School

“The housing allowance is paid with the salary and is taxable. After tax, for a single it amounts to appx 750 USD; for a couple, or with dependents it is more, up to about 1300 USD. Depending on area and size, it is possible to find accommodation in this bracket, though many people treat it as salary and just rent the place they really want for a bit more.” – International School of Kuala Lumpur

“Housing is provided by the school. Assistant Teachers share and Teachers and Teaching couples are provided a large spacious modern apartment in a condo near school with swimming pool and gym. You can also opt to take home the housing allowance and rent independently, but be aware you will need to provide the upfront 2.5 months security deposit and will not receive assistance in the return of the deposit at the end of your rental period.” – The British International School of Kuala Lumpur

Salary Information

“As of next year, teachers will be paid in Malaysian RM. This is actually a positive change and will raise salaries that have gone down with the weak dollar. Taxes are between 12 and 20%, and teachers also contribute about 10% to EPF (retirement plan).” – Mont’Kiara International School

“Pay is good, with a great retirement (EPF) program that can go up to 42% of salary (including both employer and employee amounts). Teachers are paid 10 times (August through June), but in June they also get their July salary.” – International School of Kuala Lumpur

“A teacher without a TLR can expect to take home around 14-16,000 ringgit per month after tax, which includes housing allowances. In addition to this, the EPF (Malaysias retirement fund) plays a significant role in your overall package. Roughly 3,000 ringgit will be automatically deducted from your salary for EPF, but this is separate from the 14-16,000 ringgit mentioned earlier. The school also contributes about 11 of your salary into the EPF fund, with an annual interest rate of approximately 5-8. When considering the overall package, especially with these contributions, it compares very favourably with other locations.” – Alice Smith School

“Salaries are automatically paid into each teacher’s bank account at the end of every month (usually on the 28th day of the month).” – Garden International School

“Beaconhouse has a real problem getting work permits, so much so that none of the eight foreigners at Newlands have made it to year two of their contracts. Some have been told to get out on returning from a Visa run. None have been able to stay to year two, which means they have to pay a large fine to BH for breaking contract.” – Newlands International School

(These are just 4 of the 77 different comment topics that are on each school profile page on our website.)

If you work at an international school in Kuala Lumpur, share what you know. Consider becoming a Mayor for unlimited premium membership!

Rules for Counting Countries You’ve Been To

After many years of teaching internationally, one of the greatest perks has been the opportunity to travel. School holidays, long weekends and simply living in different parts of the world have made exploring new countries much easier.

So far, I’ve been to 87 countries.

At least according to my rules.

Because once you start counting countries, you discover that travellers can become remarkably argumentative about what the word “visited” actually means.

So, after 87 countries, here are my completely unofficial rules.

Rule #1: Airports Absolutely Do Not Count

Sorry. If you spent four hours at Doha Airport eating a sandwich, you have not been to Qatar.

I don’t care if you bought a magnet.

Leave the airport and experience something outside it. Otherwise, international educators who regularly fly long-haul could probably add 15 countries to their totals based entirely on connecting flights.

Rule #2: Your Feet Need to Touch the Country

Flying over Mongolia? No.

Cruising past Cuba? No.

Actually getting off the plane, train, bus, boat, or camel and standing there?

Country unlocked.

Rule #3: You Don’t Have to Sleep There

Some country counters insist you need to spend a night somewhere before it counts.

I reject this rule.

You can spend eight hours wandering around Luxembourg, eating lunch and visiting museums, and experience considerably more than someone who arrives at 11 p.m., sleeps at an airport hotel, and leaves at 6 a.m.

Day trips count.

Rule #4: Driving Through Is…Questionable

You’re driving from Germany to Italy and pass through Austria. Have you visited Austria?

For me, you need to stop. Get out. Walk around. Eat something. Visit something. Give Austria a fighting chance.

Stopping at a petrol station to use the toilet is pushing it.

Rule #5: Territories Need Their Own Category

This is where country counters can lose entire evenings.

Greenland? Puerto Rico? Hong Kong? Aruba? Faroe Islands? Guam?

I keep my main count relatively conservative and track territories separately. There are travel communities that take this much further. NomadMania, for example, divides the world into 1,381 regions.

That should keep you busy.

Rule #6: You Don’t Need to See the Whole Country

“I’ve only been to Tokyo, so I haven’t really been to Japan.”

Nonsense.

Nobody has explored every corner of every country they’ve visited. If you spent meaningful time somewhere, you’ve been there.

Just don’t pretend three days in Tokyo makes you an expert on Japan.

So, How Travelled Are You?

Here is my completely unscientific scale:

0–20: The Explorer — You’ve caught the travel bug.

21–40: The Globetrotter — Your passport is getting interesting.

41–60: The Seasoned Traveller — People now ask you for travel advice.

61–80: The Serious Country Counter — You choose destinations partly because you haven’t been there yet.

81–100: The Passport Addict — “Why are you going there?” “Because I haven’t been.”

100+: The Century Club — Finding somewhere new now requires actual planning.

At 87, apparently I’m a Passport Addict.

Want to Start Counting?

Try NomadMania, a community for serious country and region counters; Been, which creates a visual map of places you’ve visited; or Countries Been, where you can track countries you’ve visited, lived in, and want to visit.

And then there’s the Travelers’ Century Club, whose list includes 300+ countries and territories for travellers who find the normal number of countries insufficiently challenging.

Ultimately, though, there is only one rule that really matters: be consistent.

There is no international Country Counting Police demanding evidence that you really left the train station in Liechtenstein.

Travel is about experiences, people, food, and discovering somewhere completely unfamiliar.

But I’m still counting.

87 down. Number 88, wherever you are, I’m coming.

From Teacher to Principal and Back Again: What 15+ Years in Int’l Schools Taught Me

My career as a teacher began in a rather unorthodox way. I hated school. I couldn’t wait to get out, work, earn money, and enjoy the freedom away from the restraints of the classrooms of the late ’90s.

So it probably follows that my journey through education would take a similarly unconventional path.

I graduated with my Education degree, specialising in Early Childhood, put a pin in the map of England and found myself with a suitcase in a hostel in Bristol.

I enrolled with a teaching agency and found work quickly, particularly in the more challenging areas where they struggled to find supply teachers. I loved it. Grade 6 one day, Grade 3 for six months, Grade 2 for a few weeks. Different schools, different ages, and different challenges made every day interesting.

Why did I leave a conventional teaching career to become an international teacher?

My visa was expiring and, back then, no school would sponsor me. (Oh, how times have changed!) So I scrolled through job postings on TES, interviewed for a school in Dubai, and found myself leaving England with three weeks’ notice.

I had no idea what to expect, had never been to Dubai, and I didn’t know anyone who had been before, but I remember thinking, This is going to be a great story to tell in years to come.

I hit the ground running. It was chaotic, it was hot, everything was new, and I loved it. It felt like work during the week, but at the weekends, it was almost like being on holiday.

I was lucky to have such a supportive colleague who taught the other class in my grade level. She helped me navigate the Emirati culture, the school expectations, and, quite frankly, everything else that was new and unfamiliar.

When the school moved to the PYP, I loved it even more. I really got into curriculum development, building it from scratch and working the curriculum around the children rather than trying to make the children fit the curriculum.

That was the beginning of something that would become a major part of my career.

Russia — when curriculum leadership became serious

In 2016, I decided I wanted more, so I accepted a position in Moscow, Russia. Again, I remember thinking, This is going to be a wild story to tell when I’m older.

I knew the school was having its first-ever BSO inspection early in the year, but Dubai had trained me for this. I thrived on inspections: showcasing the learning, watching children confidently share their learning, and seeing all the pieces come together in a beautiful symphony.

The entire school was awarded “Outstanding in all areas”, which was an experience that really shaped my work in curriculum development and how I viewed learning in our youngest learners.

My time at this school taught me so much about living and working in a country where English wasn’t the dominant language outside the classroom. But more than that, the teaching cohort I started with made this experience such a meaningful time in my life.

It was also where I began to understand that curriculum leadership wasn’t simply about writing documents. It was about creating a shared understanding of what learning should look and feel like, and making sure that understanding actually reached the classroom.

Then someone gave me the keys to a school

I wanted more.

I thought the natural next step was headship, so I dived into my next challenge: Head of School in Tokyo, Japan.

Whilst the school wasn’t exactly what was sold to me in the interview, it taught me a great deal.

I explored recruitment, HR, teacher development, managing adults, parent relationships, school culture, difficult conversations, safeguarding, budgeting, strategic planning, and supporting teachers while also holding them accountable.

I was also the bus nanny, the cleaner, and anything else that needed doing, because I thought that if I expected my team to do the work, I should be willing to do it too.

What a learning curve that was.

You can be very good at teaching children and still have a lot to learn about leading adults.

That experience taught me that leadership isn’t simply about having the answers. Sometimes it is about asking the right questions, making difficult decisions and, occasionally, admitting that you got something wrong.

Vietnam — becoming a teacher again

Then COVID hit.

It was at this point that I realised the many different hats I was wearing were making the role unsustainable. My best friend was relocating to Vietnam, and I couldn’t get back into Australia at that time because of the quarantine booking system, so I decided to go back into the classroom.

And I missed it.

I missed having my own class. I missed the random inquiries, the milestones, the conversations, the small moments that only happen when you spend every day with a group of children.

I missed all of it.

When I was interviewing for the position I have now, I remember the principal saying to me, “But will you be okay stepping down?”

I didn’t miss a beat.

“Being in the classroom is the pulse of the school. I don’t see it as stepping down; it’s being on the front line.”

And I’ve now been in this role for five and a half years.

Why would someone who had already become a principal choose to go back into the classroom?

Leadership isn’t necessarily the ultimate career goal for everyone.

Being responsible for an entire school is very different from being responsible for a class. Sometimes you miss the actual teaching. Sometimes life circumstances change. Sometimes the role isn’t the right fit.

Sometimes stepping sideways is actually moving forward.

Your identity doesn’t have to be tied to your job title.

As I sit here typing out these thoughts for you, dear reader, I will tell you that I am again looking for something new.

I’m not bored, but I am bored.

And perhaps that contradiction says something about a career in international education.

I still love teaching. I still love Early Years. I still love working with children and watching them make connections, ask questions, and become increasingly confident in their own abilities.

But after more than 15 years, five countries and a career that has taken me from the classroom to leadership and back again, I know that staying in the same place simply because it feels safe isn’t necessarily the right choice either.

“Moving up” isn’t necessarily the next step for you.

Sometimes you need to change it up: a new country, a new school, a new role.
Sometimes it means going back to retrain in a completely new field of interest.
Sometimes it means stepping away from leadership and returning to the classroom.
And sometimes the next step isn’t up at all. It’s sideways.

Being a principal made me a better teacher.
Being a teacher made me a better principal.

And neither role is necessarily “higher” than the other.

This article was submitted by ISC member and guest author Anita Sutton, who currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and works at the European International School.

So Many International Schools WITHOUT Retirement Plans! (Updated 2026)

It is on all international school teachers’ minds. How am I helping to contribute to my future now (for when I retire/stop working) as a current teacher in the international school community?

Not that everything is all worry-free if you just stayed teaching and earning money in your home country, but living and teaching abroad can sound pretty risky to some people (maybe even many people).

If you are working at an international school that has an amazingly high salary with equally amazing benefits, then that is one story. Even if this type of school doesn’t actually offer a nice retirement plan benefit, you still have the opportunity to save a lot of money.

But if you are working at an international school and receiving a salary that helps you ‘just get by’ along with very average benefits (for example, there is no retirement plan benefit that is on offer to you), then international school educators need to consider if the experience working at this type of international school is a good fit for their plans.

Does an international school that doesn’t offer a retirement or pension plan benefit immediately equate to being a bad decision for your future? Not necessarily. If you are only planning on staying there for one to two years, then it shouldn’t make that big of a difference. If you are receiving a high salary along with paid housing, not having an established pension plan benefit shouldn’t make that big of a difference because your savings potential is high. Hopefully, you have a laser-focused investment plan for all of that money saved.

But for those of us who are not so smart with money and don’t have the expertise to manage our own savings/retirement plan, it can definitely not be a good fit to accept a teaching job at a school that doesn’t offer retirement plan benefits.

We did a keyword search on our Comment Search feature and found a number of comments related to international schools that don’t offer a retirement or pension plan benefit.

We found 26 comments when we searched the short phrase: “No retirement”
Here are a few of those comments:

Amman Baccalaureate School (16) Total comments
“No retirement plan right now is on offer as a benefit.”

Canadian International School (Tokyo) (93) Total comments
“No retirement plan for teachers.”

International School Ho Chi Minh City (106) Total comments
“Unfortunately there is no retirement plan.”

We also searched the short phrase “No pension” and found 109 comments.
Here are a few of those comments:

Zhuhai International School (126) Total comments
“There are no pension plans from the school (included in the contract), although if you wished to establish one, the office staff would be able to assist you in establishing one.”

Varee Chiang Mai International School (138) Total comments
“There is no pension provision, but an end-of-contract gratuity is awarded in lieu.”

Stamford American International School (347) Total comments
“There is no pension, but this means you can invest your money as you see fit. There is a 15% allowance that is paid monthly with your salary. This is “instead of CPF,” which is paid for Singaporeans and PR.”

On the more positive side, we did a quick search for this key phrase “matching” (33 comments), hoping to find comments related to international schools that match the pension plan contribution of the teachers.
Here are a few of those comments:

American International School Vienna (90) Total comments
“Under the newest contract, teachers now have 10% matching for retirement fund commencing at first year. Certainly better if you’re there short-term, though perhaps not if you’d plan to stay 30 years.”

Hong Kong International School (161) Total comments
“I spend a lot of money here because I love to do eat out a lot, travel, and there are many things to do in the city. With that being said, I save about 1,300 USD a month, not counting the school severance/matching scheme which is another 1,300 USD.”

Cairo American College (230) Total comments
“The pay continues to be good. There is now a higher matching for retirement. The cost of living is still very inexpensive in Egypt.”

IS Community Blog

Rules for Counting Countries You’ve Been To

From Teacher to Principal and Back Again: What 15+ Years in Int’l Schools Taught Me

So Many International Schools WITHOUT Retirement Plans! (Updated 2026)

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Categories

Comparing the Schools and Comments: Working in Kuala Lumpur (2026)

Rules for Counting Countries You’ve Been To

Rule #1: Airports Absolutely Do Not Count

Rule #2: Your Feet Need to Touch the Country

Rule #3: You Don’t Have to Sleep There

Rule #4: Driving Through Is…Questionable

Rule #5: Territories Need Their Own Category

Rule #6: You Don’t Need to See the Whole Country

So, How Travelled Are You?

Want to Start Counting?

From Teacher to Principal and Back Again: What 15+ Years in Int’l Schools Taught Me

Why did I leave a conventional teaching career to become an international teacher?

Russia — when curriculum leadership became serious

Then someone gave me the keys to a school

Vietnam — becoming a teacher again

Why would someone who had already become a principal choose to go back into the classroom?

So Many International Schools WITHOUT Retirement Plans! (Updated 2026)

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