A number of housewives and daughters of expatriates are working in international schools as teachers. The international schools faced a lot of pressure during the recent raids by Labor Ministry to legalize those teachers who are not under their sponsorship.
To legalize all the teachers schools were given a grace period to transfer the teachers under their sponsorship, as a result the school authorities gave an ultimatum to their teachers to transfer their iqama under school sponsorship or leave the school.
“I and a number of other teachers got a letter from school administration to sign a paper that we agree to transfer the iqama on school authorities or there will be no agreement for the coming academic year,” said Sadaf Azam a school teacher.
Azam also said that the school clearly told her and others that if they are not ready to transfer their iqamas the school will not keep them.
Another teacher Safia Ishaq from a very reputable school told Arab News that because of this pressure she has to leave her job early before her retirement date which will cost her end of service gratuity.
Private schools have been heavily targeted by the ministry and stand to lose the most under the new regulations and forcing their teachers to transfer their iqamas, however; most of the school authorities gave the suggestions of issuing a work permit to wives and daughters of expatriates to solve many problems of schools and teachers to become legalized.
Padma Hariharan, Director & Head of Novel International Group of Institutions told Arab News that under legalization to work in the Kingdom, all those who are not fitting into the legal rules will have to diplomatically accept their mistake and move out from the Kingdom or rectify their status to work.
“I wish to appeal that in most of the private institutions, teachers will not be ready to do an internal transfer. Hence, new visas need to be procured. This is truly a long process and even if visas are granted, back in the respective country the whole issue of getting attestations together with recruitment will take some time, this means that second semester in certain schools will be affected. In every school there is going to be loss of teachers,” she said.
She said to solve this current scenario, I would request MoE to conduct exams for local teachers. MOE will maintain a pool or database of such qualified teachers. Schools who wish to opt for this pool of teachers will register with MoE and will comply to the rules set by MoE.
Another school principal, (who requested anonymity) said already many of the schools have increased fees, and have also decreased the salary of teachers, a number of students from small international schools are transferring to community schools, which can create problem of not having sufficient seats for students, overcrowded class rooms and closures of small schools.
Local schoolteachers under pressure
