A group of women teachers had started campaigning for the same rights as their male counterparts.

Campaign spokeswoman Mona Abdul Aziz said the decision was just the first step toward equality in schools.

“The committee that was formed to study the discrepancies in wages between men and women teachers and also among teachers of the same gender and grade were astonished by their findings,” said Abdul Aziz.

She added that the committee also recommended that all teachers be paid equal wages,  regardless of their position and whether they had obtained a specialist degree in education or not.

Abdul Aziz says women teachers who graduated between 1994 and 2004 are paid at least SR5,000 less than their male counterparts.

Although they are now being paid the same as those who graduated between 2005 and 2007, she claims that the difference in pay between men and women is still around SR2,000.

Abdul Aziz also pointed out that the now-defunct General Presidency for Girls’ Education used to employ women teachers on low salaries with no incentives or subsidies.

This practice was scrapped when the presidency merged with the Education Ministry in 2002, yet teachers who had already been working on a low pay scale were forced to sign new contracts, which resulted in them losing the benefit of seniority.

Abdul Aziz said that while the ministry has no intention to reverse this decision, the campaigners would continue to fight for the rights of those teachers who will effectively lose out in their pensions and end of service benefits.

She added that the campaigners would not rest until men and women teachers were paid the same and given the same rights in terms of working hours and conditions.