“All administrators of adult women education in various parts of the Kingdom believe that job insecurity felt by female teachers is detrimental to the ministry’s efforts to educate illiterate old women,” said Fawziyah Al-Saqr of the Ministry of Education before a conference on adult education in Abha, which recently concluded.
“Many adult women education departments complain that they do not have student guides or administrators within their women staff,” she added.
Al-Saqr said only seven percent of these departments had a surplus in staff, who then could not be transferred to other areas because of the long distances and difficult terrain. She added that 19 percent of departments were suffering from a growing number of women teachers either resigning or requesting retirement. “A large number of these administrations believe that they are being undermined by directors of education. This has caused a serious drop in morale,” she said.
“More than half of female teachers have quit because they have not received their regular payments. This has seriously damaged the credibility of the ministry.”
Al-Saqr said over half of buildings that female teachers work in are not suitable as they are not maintained or cleaned properly.
“This has caused a big dropout of adult girl students,” she said.
Deputy Education Minister for Girls’ Education Norah Al-Fayez, who opened the conference, recommended the formation of four committees to evaluate adult education programs and follow up the outcomes of the meeting and resolutions of UNESCO’s sixth conference on adult education, held late last year in Brazil.
She doubted mismanagement by regional directors of education was the main reason behind the lack of funds for adult education.
“The ministry has allotted sufficient funds for adult education, which is then being mismanaged by the departments,” she said.
