Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Saudi teachers working in private schools are calling for a campaign to stop working from next Monday until their salaries are fixed at SR5,000 according to the royal decree issued recently. The online campaign, which is now popular on Twitter, called for teachers to go to schools but not do their work until their managements gave them a monthly salary of SR5,000. The campaign goes as an objection to the low salaries that teachers get in private schools compared to public schools, which they say are not enough for a living. Expressing her objection, Eman Al-Ghamdi, a teacher, said: “My driver's salary is the same as mine or may be more. We are disgraced!” The salaries of private schools range between SR1,500 and SR3,500 with calls to improve the salaries as school owners tend to increase school fees on regular basis. Faisal Adel, another teacher, said that the proposed strike would do nothing and added that the ministry needs to speed up things in this regard. “It will harm us only if we stop giving classes,” he said. “We need to finish our curriculum on time.” A group of teachers in Taif had gone on strike recently after they were not paid on time. The teachers had objected to low wages and a delay in receiving them. Mohammad Al-Dukhaini, spokesman of the Ministry of Education, said that the Ministry has created a special committee in charge of ensuring the implementation of the minimum wage system for Saudi teachers. The committee, he said, has members from the Ministry of Education and other concerned bodies and it would ensure that teachers receive their due rights. It would also finalize a program which would be implemented soon in favor of Saudi teachers. Al-Dukhaini refused to comment on the call for strike and said things will be reviewed by the specialized committee to put SR5,000 as the minimum salary for Saudi teachers. Sultan Al-Suraie, spokesman of the Human Resources Development Fund, had previously told local newspapers that the Ministry of Education would register data of private schools to ensure that Saudi teachers received a monthly salary of SR5,000 plus SR600 as transportation charge. The royal decree issued last June set SR5,000 as the minimum salary for Saudi teachers in private schools. The Kingdom has more than 3,000 private schools for both genders. There are some 50,000 teachers and 5.7 thousand students. The average fees for private schools range between SR5,000 and SR6,000 per student. __
