DAMMAM: Teachers of the International Indian School Dammam staged a peaceful walkout when the chairman of the Managing Committee was addressing a meeting during the Annual Teachers Lunch on Tuesday.
“Our patience finally gave way to a Gandhian protest as we realized that our repeated efforts to draw the attention of the school authorities to our grievances was drawing a blank. It was obvious that no one was even interested in knowing our grievances leave alone finding a solution,” stated a group of dejected senior teachers.
“We sought their attention to the fact that in spite of working for years, we, the locally recruited teachers were not given any end of service benefits, no air tickets, and virtually no medical benefits. The final straw was when the authorities canceled our several years old incentive scheme,” said the teachers. It may be noted that IIS Dammam boasts of outstanding boards results and are one of the best in the Gulf.
The teachers were issued letters by the principal and not allowed to sign in the attendance registers in various sections. When they said thay it is the infringement of their basic right to sign, they were told, “First give an unconditional apology and then only would they be allowed to sign.”
“Such degrading and demeaning action taken by the school against senior and responsible teachers is extremely humiliating and insulting to our dignity,” teachers said.
When Arab News spoke to the chairman of the Managing Committee, he expressed regret over the unfortunate walkout. He said, “This Managing Committee has been supportive of the teachers and we have provided increments only recently.”