As per the standard contract, the minimum salary for the teaching and administrative staff has been fixed at Dh2,000.
Dan Rather once said, "The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth.'"
Two Thousand Dirhams, and that's the truth.
If the private schools are guilty of paying peanuts, the government should intervene. In this case, I think the minimum wage set is way too low. I hope and wish the leaders of the UAE would have an urgent look into this matter.
Let this blog be the voice of reason.
Does ANYONE work for less than that as a teacher? I mean, seriously? Forget the minimum wage, etc.. does anyone accept an offer of, say, AED 1,900/- ?
ReplyDeleteRidiculous.
Fellow atheist
ReplyDeleteTruth hurts.
One can imagine the kind of motivation the poor teachers will have when they are treated so poorly.
As with everything else, its just the facade, its all empty inside... education included.
How can they afford decent accomodation. Will bachelor teachers be sent to labour camps?
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine the kind of teaching that someone could provide for just Dh2,000 a day. Especially given the costs of living in the UAE.
ReplyDeleteIt really says a lot about the kind of people being hired as teachers. I don't doubt many of them are qualified, hard working people. But at Dh2,000 are they actually qualified as teachers? Because I have heard of people with zero educational experience or qualifications in education being hired to work as nursery and primary school teachers.
It's a scandal!
ReplyDeleteyou have to understand gov. schools too - have you ever been into one?
ReplyDeleteAnd when announcements like the $10b endowment come out, we say, alright, so these people are going to seriously invest in education and research. Then, such a thing comes out.
ReplyDeleteTeachers are always underpaid. They are underpaid here, they are underpaid in the US, they are underpaid in most countries in the world.
This has not always been the case. Being a teacher used to be a pretty good paying highly regarded position in society. Now it is at best met with sympathy.
Pumping money into a problem is not going to solve it. However, if someone thinks that singling out teachers with a minimum wage that is around the minimum wage in the US (where rent is a LOT cheaper), then they must be out of their minds.
The UAE: You are doomed, if this is how you deal with your education. Doomed, doomed, doomed.
Secret Dubai: is it 2,000 dirhams per day or per month?
ReplyDeleteIf it was per day, that would work out to approx 40,000 dir per month - and that would entice me to become a teacher!
"Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing." -- John F. Kennedy
ReplyDeleteSecret Dubai: is it 2,000 dirhams per day or per month?
ReplyDeleteOops per month.
But given it used to be the case that local teacher could retire on (full?) salary after ten years service, their pay probably did work out to about that ;)