Manama: Education authorities in Saudi Arabia are investigating a teacher’s claim that he had been transferred to another school by the toss of a coin.
Fahd Al Daghmani, a teacher in an elementary school in Tarif, in northern Saudi Arabia, said that the principal had flipped the coin to decide the name of the teacher who should be transferred to a newly built school in the area. He added that he had been teaching at the school for seven years and that there was no ground for the principal’s decision to transfer him to the learning facility.
“I was shocked by the decision of the principal to resort to a coin toss to decide the name of the teacher who should be transferred to the new school,” Al Daghmani said. “It was an unfair decision that was not based on any of the standards or criteria followed by the ministry of education. We have never heard of the use of a flip of a coin to decide the future of a teacher. We know that usually the teacher who was the last to arrive to the school is the one who is transferred. I have been here for seven years, more than any other teacher in my speciality,” he said, quoted by local Arabic daily Al Sharq on Wednesday.
The general director of education in the district decided to launch an investigation and requested the principal to explain the reasons for Al Daghmani’s transfer and how it was decided.
The teacher said that he did move to the new school, but handed his former principal and the education authorities a letter objecting to the transfer decision and requesting his reinstatement in his former school.
