Saudi Arabia is urging its graduates seeking teaching jobs to head for neighbouring Gulf countries, saying it can no longer accommodate them, a newspaper in the Kingdom reported on Monday.

The Saudi Ministry of Education said its needs for teaching staff have largely declined and become negligible compared with the massive number of national graduates from universities and other educational institutions.

“We are unable to absorb the huge number of graduates in the teaching profession…we don’t mind that Saudis seeking teaching jobs go to other Gulf countries in line with the existing regulations,” said Noura Al Fayez, deputy Minister of Education for female students affairs.

“The needs of the Ministry of Education for teaching jobs are now limited compared with the massive number of graduates in the Kingdom every year,” she said, quoted by the Saud Shams newspaper.

The paper said Al Fayez’s comments coincided with a decision by Qatar to slash the number of its Saudi teachers by 83 per cent to 25 from 150. It gave no reason for the move but said the decision to retain 25 Saudi teachers indicates

Qatar’s wish to keep its educational cooperation with the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia is suffering from relatively high unemployment rates among its nearly 20 million native citizens because of a rapid population increase and lower than expected growth in its economy. Another factor is the preference by the private sector to hire expatriates for lower wages.

Latest government data put the jobless rate at around 10 per cent at the end of 2009 and this has prompted Riyadh to turn to the private sector to tackle the problem by offering incentives to firms recruiting nationals.

According to official statistics, around seven million expatriates live in Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world’s oil basin that sits atop more than a fifth of the global extractable oil deposits.