Kuwait City: In regards to the 2020-2021 academic year, expat teachers make up 27 per cent of the total number of teachers working in the Ministry of Education, an educational source told Al Rai media.
The source added that the Civil Commission Bureau stipulates that expats teachers should not exceed 30 per cent and that Kuwaiti teachers should be the majority employed by the Ministry of Education.
The Civil Commission Bureau requested statistics on the number of expats teaching in the specific four fields: history, philosophy, Islamic studies and Sharia studies. In addition, the Ministry of Education has provided the Civil Commission Bureau with the total amount compared to the number of Kuwaitis, “so we do not exclude anybody by replacement,” the source appointed out.
Fate of expat teachers
Around 1,961 non-Kuwaiti teachers will be fired next July in five subjects: Islamic studies, history, geography, psychology and philosophy, according to an official source in the Ministry of Education.
In August, the Kuwaiti authorities stopped renewing residency permits of expat teachers stuck abroad, due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions.
As for private schools, many teachers were laid off in June as schools were unable to pay salaries.
In July, 250 expat teachers working in the Ministry of Education resigned since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
