RIYADH: Intervention by the Ministry of Education and pressure from parents saw the schoolteachers and the nonteaching staff of the International Indian School, Riyadh (IISR), return to their duties.
The IISR employees staged a walkout on Monday demanding a pay hike. They continued to boycott classes for part of the day yesterday.
It was the intervention of Moidh Al-Qahtani, supervisor for foreign schools at the Ministry of Education, and a climb-down by the IISR management committee that ended the work stoppage.
Al-Qahtani asked the teachers to form a five-member panel, which would press the case during talks with the school management to settle the issue once and for all. He spoke to the protesting teachers at the IISR auditorium.
The teachers later said they had already constituted the five-member panel.
The IISR management earlier announced a raise of up to 12 percent, but the teachers rejected the nominal pay hike.
According to a circular issued yesterday, the schoolteachers have been placed in three categories depending on the length of their service. Teachers on the rolls for one to five years have been given an eight percent raise, while teachers with five to 10 years' service have been given a 10 percent raise. Teachers with over 10 years' service will get a 12 percent more. The management has also decided to give SR15 for holding substitution class, while teachers working on Thursdays will be paid SR50 per period.
The school will also bear the expenses of exit/re-entry visas for those who are under the school’s sponsorship.
“The problem is not yet over, but we have given to the school employees the maximum raise and benefits that we could give at this time,” Imthias Ahmed, IISR chairman, told Arab News yesterday.
“This increase in salary and benefits is too little and too late,” said a teacher, while referring to the SR2.3 million profits the school accrued last year. “The school suffers from gross mismanagement ... the facts and figures as per the audit report go against the school officials,” said Mohammed Azmathulla Shareef, while referring to the SR20.1 million reserves of the school.
Pakistani school
The Ministry of Education, on the recommendation of the Pakistan Embassy, has sacked three members of the management panel of the Pakistan International School, Riyadh (PISR).
“A five-member committee chaired by Mohammed Asad has taken over the school management, which will continue until March 2010,” said a source on the condition of anonymity. The members, namely Imran Ahmed Chaudhury, Hassan Shahid Rizvi and Chaudhury Rahmat Ali, were sacked.
PISR Chairman Asad said the panel was now composed of five members, including himself. The other members are Abdur Rahman, Sajid Mahmood, Sanaullah and Samrez Khan. He said a new principal, Rana Naseem Ahmed, has been hired from Pakistan.
