A long and bitter battle has ensued between the Ministry of Labor and investors in private schools over the ministry's mandate that all schools must raise the wages of their Saudi teachers. Furthermore, the Human Resources Development Fund charges that private schools have no justification for increasing school fees and the expenses incurred upon students and their families. Private schools varied in their response to the Ministry of Labor's decision that the minimum wage for Saudi teachers at both private and government schools should lie at SR6,000 a month. A large number of private schools across the Kingdom reacted by hiking up their school fees even before actual implementation of the new law. A recent study conducted by a local law firm that was reported in Al-Madina newspaper investigated 30 different schools distributed over the regions of Riyadh, Madina, Hail and Al-Ahsa. These private schools had reasonable fees that ranged between SR5,000 and SR9,000 annually. This range is quite affordable for the average family in the Kingdom. The study revealed that all of the 30 schools that were studied, except for two of them, experienced substantial financial losses ever since the new rule was put into place. Owners of schools with low to average fees are claiming that they are being driven out of business by the new law. On the sidelines, parents are angrily complaining that private schools are demanding high fees without even replacing their existing multinational staff with Saudi teachers. Mansour Al-Khonaizan, head of the National Committee for International Education, believes that a different and more successful approach to employing more Saudi men and women in the country's schools needs to be taken. “Saudization of the private schools and elevating Saudi teachers' salaries is commendable, but it should not be an administrative decree on the part of the Ministry of Labor. Such strict rules will only lead to those who will devise ways to get around the laws and deceive authorities,” Al-Khonaizan said. Experts fear that the decision to raise the bar for minimum wages of Saudi teachers will result in higher fees at private schools and that the students' families will suffer from this decision. Al-Khonaizan points out that private school owners maintain the right to seek profits and that raising school fees is a natural response. Higher expenses in operating schools will discourage investors from funding and supporting schools in the future, which will in turn have a negative outcome on the educational system of the country. It is the quality of the nation's education that is at stake, the infrastructure of the private schools and their educational tools, learning aids and facilities. “On the one hand, it is necessary to help Saudi graduates find suitable jobs at a time when there are 10 million expatriates working in the Kingdom. On the other hand, demanding high salaries for Saudi teachers may place a heavy burden on the private schools. I suggest that the government should share a portion of the Saudi teachers' salaries, even if it is only for a temporary transient period until the smaller private schools are more financially stable,” Al-Khonaizan said. Abul Rahman Al-Haqbani, Chairman of the Private Education Committee, said: “The new law stated that the Human Resources Development Fund will provide SR2,500 for each Saudi teacher while the private school should cover the remaining SR2,500 in addition to SR600 for housing expenses and social insurance. In total, the private school now spends SR3,700 per month on the Saudi teacher. The problem lies in the fact that 85 percent of the private schools in the Kingdom are only small and simple establishments that charge an amount of SR5,000 to SR7,000 in annual school fees from their students, meaning that the financial returns from schools will barely cover the yearly expenses for Saudi employees, which can reach as high as SR44,000.” If these small private schools are compelled to shut down, the Kingdom can expect a loss of job opportunities for educators and school administrators and a surge of students back into the government schools that will be difficult to accommodate. __
