International School Community is full of thousands of useful, informative comments…54927 comments (23 May 2026) to be exact.

Members are recommended to keep their comments objective on our website and share what they know about what it is like working at a specific international school.

We scoured our database of comments, and we found 12 that stood out to us as being some of the most interesting and useful ones related to “Teaching Couples“.

12. Details about the staff housing or the housing allowance. If there is no housing allowance, what are the rent costs and utilities?

“The first month in HK is arranged in a hotel/serviced apartment. The single “rental reimbursement” (housing allowance) is about 1,600USD. Teachers employed overseas with an approved dependent get 1.4 times that. Teaching couples receive twice the single allowance, and married teaching couples with one dependent child receive 2.4 times the single rental reimbursement. With two dependent children, it is 2.8 times the amount. If you don’t spend the whole allowance, you still get the money, but you will pay tax on it. Rents are high but vary hugely. Most people more or less manage to live within their allowance, unless they want something a bit more spacious/special. HK apartments are really small, but you’ll probably be less squashed if you live in/around Sai Kung” – Hong Kong Academy (Hong Kong, China) – 67 Comments

11. Average amount of money that is left to be saved.

“It’s fairly easy to save a $1000 a month and still live a pretty decent lifestyle. For teaching couples it’s very easy to live on one teacher’s salary and save the entire other paycheck.” – Rowad Alkhaleej International School (Dammam) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) – 129 Comments

10. Describe their hiring policies. Which recruiting fairs do they go to? How do they typically hire (e.g. face-to-face interview, Skype, etc.)? Are there any hiring restrictions mandated by the country?

“The school does go to the London fairs, but like the previous common mentioned, they do look for teaching couples before hiring single teachers. There are also new visa restrictions underway limiting the number non-EU students and staff that can work at/attend the school.” – Leysin American School (Leysin, Switzerland) – 124 Comments

9. Average amount of money that is left to be saved.

“Some teachers just save most of their USD part of their salary and spend the local currency money. Some teaching couples do this, and they are saving quite a lot every year.” – American International School in Egypt (New Cairo City, Egypt) – 76 Comments

8. Information about benefits for teachers with dependents

“School is good and generous with this. Nicely, teachers AND staff/support staff, whether local or international, get tuition benefits for children. There are some teachers/teaching couples with more students at the school than parents teaching. The school sometimes requests a trailing spouse to do some “volunteer” work at the school to offset these costs. There are stories of this not always being 100% fair. If you’re in that kind of situation, it’s very much worth getting expectations ironed out early.” – American British Academy (Muscat, Oman) – 68 Comments

7. Describe their hiring policies. Which recruiting fairs do they go to? How do they typically hire (e.g., face-to-face interview, Skype, etc.)? Are there any hiring restrictions mandated by the country?

“They do hire at the fairs. My friends got hired there at the Search fair in London, a year ago. There used to be a lot of teaching couples hired, who have children, but that is diminishing more and more because some people don’t necessarily want to raise their children here in Tanzania.” – International School of Tanganyika (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) – 178 Comments

6. Details about the staff housing or the housing allowance. If there is no housing allowance, what are the rent costs and utilities?

“Single or non-teaching couple without children SG$3000/month. Teaching couples or a teacher with a child dependent $3,500/month. Teaching couples with children SG$3,500. These are fair allowances given the current rental rates in Singapore. Couples with more than 2 children may decide to top up the allowance to get a larger apartment.” – Nexus International School – Singapore (Singapore) – 55 Comments

5. What does the school do to create a harmonious state of well-being and high morale amongst its staff?

“Generally, only hire teachers with a solid IB background, but will make exceptions for exemplary candidates, especially when in Teaching couples or harder to hire positions.” – Yokohama International School (Yokohama, Japan) – 44 Comments

4. Describe their hiring policies. Which recruiting fairs do they go to? How do they typically hire (e.g. face-to-face interview, Skype, etc.)? Are there any hiring restrictions mandated by the country?

“It is hard to survive here if you are a single teacher with dependents, so the school will only hire Teaching couples that have dependents. You need to have a passport from either the U.S. or Canada with a Bachelor’s Degree.” – American School of Quito (Quito, Ecuador) – 61 Comments

3. Information about benefits for teachers with dependents.

“If you meet admissions requirements, then you get up to two children for free. Teaching couples get up to 3 dependents for free (to attend the school).” – International School of Beijing (Beijing, China) – 40 Comments

2. Describe their hiring policies. Which recruiting fairs do they go to? How do they typically hire (e.g. face-to-face interview, Skype, etc.)? Are there any hiring restrictions mandated by the country?

“The school encourages teaching couples with or without children to apply for vacancies. The school does look for candidates that are familiar with the UK teaching practice.” – British International School of Jeddah (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) – 41 Comments

1. Describe their hiring policies. Which recruiting fairs do they go to? How do they typically hire (e.g. face-to-face interview, Skype, etc.)? Are there any hiring restrictions mandated by the country?

“Teachers are hired on a two-year contract, with the possibility of one-year extensions thereafter. They look to hire single teachers willing to share housing with one other single teacher, or married Teaching couples. They will consider teaching couples with dependent children if they are of an age to attend NJIS (or younger).” – North Jakarta International School (Jakarta, Indonesia) – 118 Comments

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