The Ministry of Education is considering authorizing school principals to test the dependents of expatriates before employing them, to speed up the hiring process, according to local media.

Committees from the ministry would monitor schools during the evaluation process, the reports said.

The dependents of expatriates — mainly the wives and daughters of expatriate men — had been employed on a part time basis by private schools but they abandoned their jobs after the government crackdown on illegal workers. This resulted in many local schools closing down.

In a concession to these workers, the government recently announced that these women would be given work permits, under the sponsorship of their men relatives, to work in local schools.

Abdullah Sadiq Dahlan, a former member of the Shoura Council, member of the board of the Arab International Labor Organization and representative of Saudi businessmen, said schools should be authorized to carry out these tests.

He said the ministry should not conduct these tests because it would take as long as six months for a decision to hire workers.

Dahlan said the employment of these foreign women must be prioritized. He confirmed that a committee from the Ministries of Interior and Labor has already agreed on the conditional employment of these dependents in private schools if there are no qualified Saudi candidates available.