RIYADH, 21 February — Saudi teachers working in private schools will receive a salary hike soon, according to an official source in the Ministry of Education. The ministry has directed school managements to increase the minimum monthly salary of teachers to SR3,000. The order follows a series of studies aimed at solving the growing unemployment problem among trained teachers.
The private schools which implement the directive will receive several incentives from the ministry while schools that refuse to comply with the order will face penal measures.
The Presidency for Girls Education issued a similar order as teachers in the private schools under its supervision receive salaries as low as SR1,200.
The order comes in the wake of measures taken by education authorities in the Western Province to classify private schools as well as to restructure pay scales of teaching staff and tuition fees levied from students.
The ministry will take steps to remove obstacles before employing Saudi women in private schools. Many schools confess that they are unable to pay a reasonable sum as salaries and therefore have to recruit teachers from abroad at low wages.
The National Project for Training and Employment, founded at the instance of Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, has appointed 1,500 lady teachers in private schools in Makkah, Jeddah and Taif from a total of 6,000 candidates short-listed by the Labor Office in conjunction with the NPTE and the Presidency of Girls Education.
