Saudi Gazette report
TAIF – A shortage of teachers threatens to derail the Kingdom’s anti-illiteracy program as teachers currently teaching in the program are being transferred to regular schools, Al-Watan daily reported.
A teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Ministry of Education has called on teachers working full time in anti-illiteracy centers to transfer to regular schools to fill a shortage of teachers in the country’s primary and secondary schools.
The anti-illiteracy centers are adult education centers that hold classes in the afternoon for women and in the evening for men. The move is threatening the continuity of over 100,000 programs.
"The teachers working at these centers cannot possibly take on any other teaching positions,” said the teacher.
She also said the centers are open in every province and governorate and they are usually set up in rural areas where illiteracy rates are high.
“I personally work for a center that has 70 illiterate students. The center opens at 2:30 p.m. but the teachers working in it cannot divide their time between teaching at a school in the morning and then coming to teach at the center in the afternoon. We all have family obligations to meet,” said the teacher.
Hanan Al-Otaibi, another teacher, said the ministry should grant teachers working for anti-illiteracy centers the choice to transfer and be commissioned to another teaching position or remain in the center they are in as full time teachers.
