JEDDAH, 6 January 2005 — Elementary school teachers expressed annoyance at the Education Administration’s decision to cancel their extra week of mid-term vacation which is supposed to begin today.
First, second and third year elementary students completed their classes last week and they do not take any mid-term or final exams. The teachers have turned in their evaluations of the students this week and have traditionally been allowed an extra week of vacation during spring and summer breaks due to their tiring and exceptional efforts at teaching such young children.
“Some teachers and administrators complained to the Education Administration about us taking this week of vacation while the rest of them have to work and don’t begin their vacation until the following week after the students have completed their exams and the teachers corrected the exam papers,” said Haya, a female teacher. “But that’s not fair because we have the kids all day everyday unlike the other teachers who have a certain number of hours to teach a week, and we’re talking about very young kids who need special kind of attention and teaching methods,” she added.
A directive have been issued by the Education Administration to revoke the first-to-third grade elementary teachers’ extra week of vacation earlier this week and this has caused some tension between the teachers and the school administrators in many of the elementary schools for girls. The teachers were asked to come to work next week and help the other teachers correct their mid-term exam papers.
Some of the teachers expressed their refusal to comply while some administrators are considering being lenient in enforcing this new regulation because they sympathize with the teachers and realize that they cannot be expected to correct exam papers of subjects they are not familiar with.
A source at the Education Administration told Arab News that this was not an overnight decision but perhaps not enough thought was put into it. The reason for the change in regulations is not clear but there is no shortage of staff at the schools to request the teachers to take over more work, according to the source.
