Some of them say they are forced to work for low salaries at private schools where they often end up teaching subjects that they have not studied in college.

Many Saudis choose to study at education colleges to pursue a career in teaching, which is considered highly lucrative. If they are successful in finding jobs in government schools, they can earn between SR6,000 and SR10,000 a month.

With a large number of students graduating every year, there is a saturation in the field, resulting in growing unemployment among trained teachers.

Recently, more than 12,000 teachers gathered in front of the Ministry of Education in Riyadh to complain about nonavailability of jobs.

Many graduates are forced to work in private schools, even if it means teaching subjects that they have not specialized.

“I graduated from King Abdulaziz University, where I studied how to teach history. I was searching for opportunities at a government school for a year,” said Nouf Al-Shmrani, a Saudi working for a private school in Jeddah. “I am now teaching history, geography and even science subjects to primary school students. It is difficult to teach something that I know little about.”

It is not just teachers that are struggling to get jobs of their first preference or jobs that they are trained to do. Professionals who cannot find jobs in their own specializations are also turning to teaching in private schools as a backup. They are not allowed to take jobs at government schools if they have not trained to be a teacher.

Manal Bahamdain, an interior designer who graduated from a private college in Jeddah, decided to work as a teacher two years ago.

“Although I have a certificate in interior design, I could not find a suitable job. This made me to submit my papers to a private school in Jeddah to work as a teacher. The school agreed to hire me as an English teacher on a salary of SR3,000. They justified the low salary because I am not a qualified teacher,” she said.

Although she has been working as an English teacher for two years, Bahamdain says that working in her original field is better. This is why she hopes to get back into interior designing at the first available opportunity. “I would like to work as a designer, as I would earn more than what I am getting as a teacher at a private school.”

Sultan Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi teacher who graduated from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, was forced to work as a sociology teacher at a private school, because he also could not find a job at a government school.

“I chose to study Arabic language because there were many vacancies six years ago. By the time I graduated from university, I discovered that there were no job opportunities left for Arabic teachers,” he said.

“I decided to work as a teacher at a private school on a salary of SR2,500. But I have been forced to teach other subjects. Now I teach sociology. In addition, the school forces teachers to organize extra-curricular activities and events, even though it is not part of our job description. We do many things for free.”

Thuraya Abdullah used to have trouble traveling to her job as a math teacher at a government school in Khulais, a village 90 km away from her home in Jeddah. She says because of the long commute, she found a new job as a general teacher at a private school close to her home.

“Because of the transportation difficulties that many women teachers are suffering, me and many of my colleagues decided to move to Jeddah and work in private schools. Leaving our original job at the government schools was considered a risk, but we had no choice,” she said. “We are working for private schools on half of our original salary. In addition, we are teaching subjects that we have never taught before.”

According to Abdullah, teachers at private schools are forced to do almost everything. “We cannot refuse to organize extra-curricular activities. We have submitted our CVs to the Ministry of Civil Services to find jobs in government schools in Jeddah, but we have discovered that the number of qualified teachers without jobs has reached 350,000.”