Dubai Indian schools hunting for new teachers

Dubai, Feb 24: The schools which follow Indian curriculum in the emirate are looking for replacements for their teachers as many are expected to quit their job after this academic session. Schools are even sending recruiting teams to India to hire ''good and experienced teachers''. But even that was not easy in the face of better pay packets and working conditions for teachers in the subcontinent, who, sources said, are difficult to recruit as pay scales for teachers in the subcontinent are getting better as compared to same syllabus schools in the UAE, Khaleej Times reported.

Most of the Indian-syllabus schools in the UAE pay teachers between 2,000 dirham and 3,000 dirham. Schools in India are on an average offering more than Rs 10,000 a month, which teachers say is more attractive than the remuneration in the UAE. The minimum qualification for teachers, according to the UAE Ministry of Education (MoE), is Bachelor of Education (B.Ed).

Schools affiliated to the Indian Central Board of secondary Education (CBSE) require trained teachers, who are graduates and have completed B.Ed to teach up to Grade X, while teachers of higher classes require a postgraduate degree besides B.Ed.

The Indian schools are facing the crunch also due to exodus of qualified teachers to international curricula schools who lure them with better pay packages, the paper quoted sources as saying.

Sources estimate Indian-syllabus schools under the Gems group alone in the UAE require at least 100 teachers for the next academic year and principals had been to different Indian cities recently to recruit new teachers.

''It is increasingly becoming very difficult to find good, qualified teachers. Salaries have gone up in India and it is not very attractive for teachers to come here anymore. We are looking for teachers from abroad as well as in the UAE,'' said executive principal Aziz Akhtar of Our Own Indian School, Dubai, which hopes to find replacements for ten teachers this year and added that ''this was a regular exercise for most Indian schools.'' ''Finding substitutes for lower classes may not be difficult.

However, finding good teachers for secondary classes could pose a problem,'' Sharjah Indian School principal KNN Pillai said.

''The fact that pay scales have increased in India is certainly a contributing factor that makes finding good teachers difficult.

Schools in the UAE, specially those offering Asian syllabi, are not so attractive anymore,'' executive principal Shobhana Verghese, of Our Own English High School, Dubai said.

UNI