Kuwaiti official says time has come to replace foreign teachers

Kuwait’s Undersecretary at the Ministry of Education, Haitham Al-Athari, has said that the time has come for the government to appoint Kuwaiti nationals in place of foreign teachers who have been working in the country for a long time, Al-Rai has reported.

Al-Athar said,

Non-Kuwaiti teachers are the basis of the educational process alongside their Kuwaiti peers.

Nevertheless, given that there is a long list of Kuwaiti graduates waiting for an appointment, it is time to thank those who have served Kuwait well and send them on their way, he added. The ministry’s decision to terminate the contracts of expatriate teachers includes those in disciplines that are experiencing a surplus of educators.

On Monday, the Minister of Education and Higher Education, Dr Mohammed Al-Faris, announced that senior officials employed by the ministry who have spent 34 years in supervisory posts are being pushed into retirement. The decision covers a number of heads of department, inspectors and educational administrators, as well as some school principals and assistant managers.