MADINAH, 8 March 2005 — Most parents rely on teachers to ensure their youngsters learn all they need to have bright futures, but at some dingy Madinah schools teachers first have to brighten up the classrooms — with soap and water. It’s a dirty business, and while some teachers are more than willing to tidy up, others want to wash their hands of the whole thing.

District officials say the problem isn’t widespread throughout the hundreds of schools for which it is responsible, and each school has a cleaning budget. But if you’re one of the unlucky teachers faced with a filthy classroom, guess who gets to clean it. Al-Madinah newspaper is not in the habit of digging up dirt, but it found a few classrooms where no shovel was required.

“You’d never imagine how much dirt and dust accumulates during vacation when there is no cleaning company,” Samar Ali, an intermediate school teacher, told the daily. “On the first day of the semester, we had to clean it up in order to teach in a tidy place and provide a healthy environment for the students.”

Teachers spend their days in the classrooms, and just like you would want to live in a clean home, they would like to work in a clean classroom, said Samar.

“I couldn’t work in a dirty school,” said Intesar Al-Abdeen. “Some of the other teachers and I come early every day to clean the school. It’s very hard to clean and teach at the same time, but it’s all to my advantage because teaching in a dirty place would affect me.”

Some teachers say that the students could show a little more school spirit.

“Students aren’t internalizing that this is their school as well as it is ours,” said Hanan Mohamed, teacher in an intermediate school. “Whenever we finish cleaning the school halls, I notice students throwing trash and cans on the floor. It makes me angry.”

Khadeja Ali, a primary school teacher, said that she always buys detergents and cleaning materials to clean the school.

“Our repeated requests to bring a cleaning company to handle the job have been ignored,” said Ali. She added that she and other teachers are handling the cleaning jobs from classrooms to toilets, but many teachers refuse to help.

One teacher said it wasn’t in her job description. “I am a teacher, and that means I am responsible for teaching students,” said Soad Al-Rehaly. “Cleaning the school is not one of my job requirements. I find the idea of teachers cleaning the school unacceptable, and I reject it without negotiation.”

Dr. Yousif Al-Faky, manager of Girls’ Education in Madinah, said that the problems were isolated incidents.

The ministry specifically budgets SR3 million annually for school cleaning in Madinah, which goes for SR100 for each class.

So is the dust bag half-empty or half-full? “There are 700 schools in the province that did not complain about cleaning neglect or any other problems in this area,” Dr. Al-Faky said. He noted that if there are some schools facing cleaning problems, it doesn’t reflect the situation in all the schools.