In recent months, the Kuwaiti government has entered a transition to “Kuwaitize” a number of fields of work in both public and private sectors.o
The said initiative was in line with the government’s vision of “resettling the workforce” and opening more job opportunities for nationals, which had not been the case for many years due to the large number of expats living in the country.
Ministry Deals with Worker Strain with Shortage in Science, English Teachers
Education Minister Hamed Al-Azmi revealed that the Ministry of Education (MoE) is currently experiencing a shortage in teachers who can handle a number of scientific subjects as well as English, especially male teachers in intermediate stage schools, as shared in a report by the Kuwait Times.
Azmi cited the students’ geographic distribution in new residential cities and the opening of new schools at the beginning of the current school year as the reasons for the shortage among teachers in the State.
The minister further explained that the total number of MoE teachers is 72,292, including 70,133 in public schools, 1,478 in special education schools, and 781 in religious education schools.
Furthermore, the residency visas of 17,054 private school teachers are sponsored by private companies.
In a statement, the Education minister also pointed out the need to take into consideration the teachers’ circumstances when assigning them to various schools or when opening job vacancies in collaboration with the Civil Service Commission (CSC), prioritizing nationals, followed by GCC nationals, bedoons, expats and finally sending out committees abroad to recruit expat teachers.
According to the ministry, there are a number of reasons in relation to the current shortage of teachers in the country – such as Kuwaitis’ reluctance in pursuing a teaching career in general, their inability to adapt to the burdens of teaching and other administrative responsibilities, as well as the various types of leaves the citizens tend to take including medical leaves, study leaves, escorting patients for treatment abroad and maternity leaves; and then there’s the poor allocation of teachers; difficulty in acquiring expat teachers due to low salaries and financial incentives, as well as the annual resignation of expat teachers due to the high cost of living in the country, among others.