Abu Dhabi: Members of the Federal National Council demanded the recruitment of more Emirati teachers before hiring thousands of foreign teachers.

“Emirati teachers must be given top priority in recruitment and no foreign teacher should be taken before all national professionals are employed,” Naama Al Sharhan, a member from Ras Al Khaimah, told the House.

Al Sharhan was quizzing Jameela Salem Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Public Education, on why foreign teachers are hired when many Emirati teachers remain unemployed.

She asked who are better to teach young Emiratis than Emirati teachers. “We have a strong contingent of foreign teachers in the schools and leadership positions, but the number of Emirati teachers is very low,” she said.

Al Sharhan said over the past 18 months, 3,430 teachers from Arab and foreign countries were hired. “Emirati teachers can take these jobs, leaving not a single citizen unemployed,” Al Sharhan said.

She argued it was hugely beneficial for young Emiratis to have local role models to learn from. “For the country to switch from an importer of knowledge to a producer, we must first have Emiratis who are able to build on current knowledge and develop it further. Without home-grown educators, we will always remain consumers.”

Minister Al Muhairi said the Ministry of Education hired Arab and non-Arab teachers for teaching certain subjects in which the country has shortage in Emirati teachers.

“This will soon come to an end when we have highly qualified and trained Emirati teachers for these subjects,” Al Muhairi promised.

Members of the House demanded the recruitment of more Emirati instructors at public universities and colleges.

They called for better salaries and incentives for Emiratis, making a career in academia more attractive to them.

Of the 2,872 instructors in public universities, 252 were Emirati in the 2014-2015 academic year. In private universities, only 85 out of 4,364 instructors were Emirati.

The members believed this low figure was because of low salaries and long hours that gave academics little time to undertake research that would help them advance their careers.