JEDDAH, 8 September 2004 — The Ministry of Education yesterday agreed to appoint some 3,000 graduates of teachers’ colleges within a week after nearly 1,000 of them gathered in front of the ministry’s headquarters in Riyadh protesting the delay in their appointment, press reports said.
“The ministry will appoint all the remaining graduates of teachers’ colleges estimated at about 3,000,” Al-Madinah Arabic daily quoted a ministry official as saying.
Saleh ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Humaidy, director of administrative and financial affairs at the ministry, said he had received instructions from Education Minister Dr. Muhammad Al-Rasheed on Monday to tackle the issue.
The protesters, some of whom graduated a year ago, were not convinced by the answers and justifications given for their non-appointment. They charged that the ministry was still recruiting foreign teachers.
The ministry published last week the list of 3,366 teachers appointed in various parts of the country. They included 1,268 university graduates. But 3,334 graduates of teachers’ colleges did not receive appointment letters.
Dr. Khaled Al-Awad, deputy minister of education, said some graduates were dropped out from the list as there were not enough vacancies to appoint them. “There were 11,000 graduates and we had only 7,183 vacancies,” he explained.
However, Al-Awad said the ministry would coordinate with authorities concerned to accommodate the remaining graduates.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Masoudi, assistant deputy minister for teachers’ affairs, also promised that the ministry would do its best to solve the problem within a few days. He said there are 3,334 graduates still awaiting appointments.
Al-Masoudi said the ministry appointed 13,000 Saudi teachers last year and dismissed suggestions that it was still appointing expatriates in primary schools except for teachers of English language.
According to Al-Watan Arabic daily, more than 1,000 graduates gathered in front of the ministry on Monday demanding their immediate appointment.
The newspaper said the graduates had called for the personal intervention of Crown Prince Abdullah to end their problems.
Muhammad Al-Qahtani, a graduate, said the ministry had gone back on its promise after asking students of teachers’ colleges to give an undertaking that they would work for government schools for four years after graduation.
Abdul Aziz Al-Areefi, an Arabic teacher, said the ministry did not consider those who had scored high marks in exams, adding that it made the new appointments on the basis of tests. Some other graduates also blamed the ministry’s tests for their problems.
The father of Ali Ahmad Al-Shehri, another graduate, said his son graduated in Qur’anic studies and wanted to know why the ministry delayed his appointment.
Abdullah Al-Qahtani, who specialized in mathematics, expressed surprise as to why he was not appointed when there were vacancies in schools for math teachers.
