RIYADH: The management committee of the International Indian School-Riyadh (IISR), announced on Saturday an eight percent across the board salary increase for the school’s teachers and nonteaching staff who staged a walkout last week in order to emphasize their grievances.
“The raise has been given across the board and will be effective from Oct. 1, while there is a possibility of a hike in tuition fees to offset the increased expenditure,” said Imthias Ahmed, IISR chairman.
He said: “The problem is over and the panel representing teachers has agreed to what we have offered them. This is not an interim relief package, rather it is a permanent increase.”
Ahmed said a new circular had already been issued in this regard. “Actually this eight percent increase will eventually come to a 15 percent gross increase, if we calculate the proportionate hike in housing allowance and end-of-service-benefits,” he added.
Ahmed said teachers had agreed to work for the Fun Fair (an IISR charity event for helping poor students) immediately after the reopening of the school in the first week of October. “All school staff have pledged to extend their full support to the IISR management,” said Ahmed, who had to deal with close to 500 protesting teachers and non-teaching staff who boycotted classes for two consecutive days to demand pay raises.
The IISR, with an enrollment of over 9,000, is one of the largest Indian overseas schools. The school had problems when teachers and nonteaching personnel boycotted classes and staged sit-in demonstrations last week. Teachers and nonteaching staff working in other Indian schools abroad, including embassy-run schools in Jeddah and Dammam, are better paid than those in the IISR.
