RIYADH – With only a few weeks left for the reopening of schools across the Kingdom, a number of private school owners have complained that 90 percent of them did not obtain the required visas for hiring expatriate teachers. This has caused schools to reduce the enrollment of students, which will result in losses of around SR1 billion during this academic year. Some schools have also submitted requests to the Ministry of Education to allow them to raise their tuition fees. The ministry has approved a maximum fee raise of SR2,000 for some schools only, while requests from other schools were rejected. Schools owners also said that they have stopped registering Saudi teachers in the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) due to the 11 percent charge imposed on schools to pay for each Saudi teacher. Dr. Zuhair Ghunaim, member of the national committee for private schools at the Council of Saudi Chambers, said that there are 600,000 students enrolled in private schools, which employ 15,000 Saudi teachers, and 60,000 expatriate teachers. The Saudi teacher is paid an average salary of SR5,600 per month, while an expatriate teacher is paid SR2,500, in addition to housing, transportation allowances, and medical insurance for expatriate teachers only. Dr. Al-Ghunaim added that 60-70 percent of private schools will be forced to reduce the number of available classes, due to teacher shortages, especially for subjects where no Saudi teachers are available. He pointed out that the required visas are for all specialties, except for Arabic language, and Islamic studies. Dr. Dakheelullah Al-Seraisri, deputy head of the private schools committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), said that the 11 percent charge which was imposed by GOSI should have been first discussed with school owners. He said this portion should be paid by the Human Resources Fund, which pays SR2,500 of Saudi teachers salaries. Al-Seraisri said that expatriate teachers in private schools account for 70 percent of total expatriate teachers in the Kingdom. He asked the Ministry of Education to instruct labor offices to speed up the process of dealing with private school cases. Meanwhile, private schools in the Eastern Province have won an important decision from the appeals court which has frozen the penalties imposed by the Ministry of Education on those schools which have not met the Saudization requirements.
