Living in Johor Baharu advice

The wage is equivalent to £600 per month and you cant get a work permit (called an employment pass) on that salary. The minimum is RM5k per month. The school should know this. Have they asked you to pay for anything, e.g. work permit, etc?

No not yet, it's just an offer at the moment and I haven't said yes to it because I knew this sort of thing would happen and I haven't got my hopes up just yet. Thanks for letting me know that anyway.

Anyone who asks you to pay anything is running a job scam. There are quite a few of them in Malaysia unfortunately. They usually ask for some sort of payment either for visa, accommodation, background check, etc. I have never heard of a school offering such a low salary, but Johor is a dump.

There are two stages to an employment pass and the first is the school getting permission to hire and that you can be the candidate. You should not sign a contract until they can provide you with proof that the recruitment has been approved by the Department of Education and the Immigration Dept. www.imi.gov.my explains this.

And no, you cant live reasonably on RM3k per month because you have to pay tax and accommodation will cost about RM1k.

There are lots of schools hiring at the moment in the KL area.

Forgot to clarify the income tax will be 25% flat rate until tax resident i.e. after 182 days in a calendar year. This makes a big hole. Teachers often get caught out with the tax, as if you leave Malaysia on a social visit for more than 14 days during qualification period, the clock is zero'd. There can be a refund which is the difference between the normal stratas of tax and the lump sum, as long as 2 tax years are successfully linked according to the rules. (Its the same system in the UK but rates are different).

Tax steps on annual salary are:
                 2015
0-5,000                    0%                                                 
5,000-10,000      1% i.e. RM50
10,001-20,000    1%  +RM100
20,001-35,000    5%  +RM750
35,001-50,000   10%  +RM1,500
50,001-70,000   16% +RM3,200
70,001-100,000   21% +RM6,300
100,001-250,000  24% +RM36,000
250,001-400,000  24.5% +RM36,750
Exceeding 400 000  25%  (+?)

wow.. umm.. thanks for that advice hahahaha
very turned off about going anywhere now but it's fine. Thanks

Just shop around, as mentioned, plenty of jobs and assistant teacher positions at the moment, hiring for August 2015.