nomerci--the various reasons are that they are hardly any internationally qualified primary and secondary teachers who are qualified to teach Arabic. I have friends who have sent their kids to Compass and other decent international schools who offer Arabic for years, and they've learned very little. Parents who are serious about it end up hiring private tutors.

I think the idea of learning Arabic is great, but the whole implementation of it has been poorly planned and executed and further underlined parents' poor impression of the SEC as being more motivated by politics than in children's education.