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28 March 2024

Low pay leading to high Dubai teacher turnover

Published
By Sneha May Francis

Teachers need to be rewarded for their hard work, and ignoring this will negatively impact the functioning of a school, Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has acknowledged in a new report.

“Casual recruitment, low salaries and poor working conditions tend to be key factors when staff leaves schools,” reads the annual report card for Dubai schools.

With the school inspections currently underway, and many reports of institutions ‘dressing up’ to score brownie points surfing, the regulatory board has urged school managements to be more proactive when it comes to training and remunerating their teaching staff.

“Not all schools understand that to provide teachers with training, support and fair terms of employment is a vital investment strategy.”

It added: “All schools, and especially the students, benefit from a stable and happy workforce. Schools are becoming increasingly creative in the ways they try to retain teachers, but many schools are not so thoughtful.”

In fact, the KHDA acknowledged in their report that “a particularly high turnover of teachers has a negative impact on the quality and continuity of students’ learning in a few schools.”

The KHDA’s Private School Landscape in Dubai (2012-13) had focused on the same issue earlier.

“Approximately 16 per cent of the teachers that were teaching in a private school last academic year were not teaching at that school the following year.

“More than half of these new teachers to private schools have been recruited from other countries.”

Some teachers in Indian schools are paid as low as Dh2,500 despite clocking in an impressive number of years in the same school.

“I have been working for three years in the same school but have not got an increment yet. It’s only the passion for teaching that’s keeping me going,” revealed a teacher of a leading Indian school in Dubai. “If my husband wasn’t earning well, this wouldn’t have been an option.”

Another teacher, requesting anonymity, claimed she had moved jobs in a year, only for a Dh1,000 hike. “Even though I have worked in the field for so many years, I still had to bargain with the management for the increase in pay. This is highly demotivating.”

Add to this, some schools don’t even provide accommodation or health insurances for their teaching staff.

Speaking to Emirates 24|7 earlier, Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General at KHDA had stated that he was keen on focusing on the teachers’ contracts.

“We are working with the Ministry of Labour on the contractual agreements. The staff turnover in this sector ranges between 10 and 30 per cent. And, it happens in the best schools even.

“Compensation will help clear the contract. The contract looks at both parties – the school owners and the teachers, each has certain responsibilities. Teachers can’t be allowed to move during mid-year. So, compensation is one element of it, training is another.”

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