By Ahmad Al-Zamami
Employees spend most of their time in the work environment. Therefore, the work environment, as well as the salary they get, heavily affects their productivity, skills and motivation to work.
Keeping in mind that the schoolteacher is one of the main pivots behind the development of society, their salaries must be high in order for them to be effective.
According to a recent study in 2014, the average salary of elementary schoolteachers in Luxembourg (a small European country with almost half a million population) is $68,000 a year. This is around $5,600 a month. Second is Germany at $51,000, then Denmark at $45,000, then the United States of America at $42,000, then Australia and Canada at $39,000, and then Japan and England at $28,000. The salary of schoolteachers in Saudi Arabia is $24,000 which might increase to $29,000 depending on qualifications. According to the previous study, the salary in the Kingdom is close to the salaries of schoolteachers in Japan and England.
So are these salaries actually enough for schoolteachers to work hard for the development of society or is there a possibility for a positive change?
A long time ago, the Saudi Ministry of Health decided to open new hospitals that work under a self-operating system due to the inequality of salaries that sometimes occur in the medical field. This provided a good opportunity for these hospitals to hire people with higher salaries than people employed in the governmental sectors. This was an extraordinary opportunity because hospitals are able to ensure that employees will be productive.
Is it possible with the government’s recent privatization of some sectors to introduce such strategies in schools? If they were, then schoolteachers would have the right to work temporary and with a clear employment contract that ensures both parties get their full rights.
Would it also be possible to ensure at the same time that employees with the best qualifications are the ones getting hired? If it is then we could introduce this strategy in all of our schools.
