Indian teachers in the Gulf may face termination

The UAE's Ministry of Education is planning to replace 800 expatriate teachers with their own nationals.

About 800 expatriate teachers in the United Arab Emirates, mostly Indians, will be asked to leave, as the country's Ministry of Education is planning to replace them with their own nationals.

HT Image

In what could be the biggest shake-up of teachers in the country's history, the UAE government is planning on recruiting almost 500 UAE national as teachers to replace expatriates, the Khaleej Times reported on Monday.

"The plan, if approved, will see almost 800 expatriate teachers being asked to leave or being terminated," it said.

The report said that under the new plan, almost 95 per cent of the new recruits would be women and they will be offered scales with financial allotments.

The move is being taken as part of the substitution plan the ministry is pursuing in its all out bid to place more UAE citizens in teaching posts.

The ministry had already obtained the lists of national male and female teachers for the appointments that it plans.

The report quoted official sources at the Ministry of Education in Abu Dhabi as saying that the ministry would submit a memorandum to the Cabinet for approval, as the appointment of such a large number of teachers would cost the exchequer at least Dh30 million.

National counterparts would replace expatriate teachers of Arabic, English and Mathematics, the sources said.

Meanwhile, several teachers complain about poor working conditions and paltry salaries, despite expecting high standards. Schools also take advantage of the availability of expatriate wives to keep salaries unnecessarily low, they allege.