Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s schoolteachers and principals are the youngest as compared to many other countries, according to the Teaching and Learning International Survey.

The mean age of teachers in the Kingdom is only 38 years with an average work experience of 12 years, while the average age of teachers of some 47 other countries that took part in the survey is 44 years old with 16 years of work experience.

The mean age of school principals in the Kingdom is 43 years with an average experience of 8 years, eight years less than the average age of principals in the countries participated in the survey, which is 51 years, with an average experience of nine years.

The survey titled “The teaching profession and its value in the eyes of teachers and school principals” is a global evaluation of conditions of teaching and learning. It is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with a view to improving educational policies and outcomes.

The survey collects internationally comparable data on the learning environment and the working conditions of teachers and principals in schools across the world.

The Saudi Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) issued a detailed report about the participation of Saudi teachers in TALIS. Schools in the Kingdom pick their principals at the age of 35 on an average while in the countries participating in the TALS, principals are appointed at the age of 42 years.

The 2018 TALS report deals with the features of the teaching profession in the eyes of teachers themselves, as education provides a satisfactory path in the opinion of 90 percent of teachers, and provides a guaranteed income, according to 91 percent and a safe job according to 90 percent of them while 94 percent of teachers believe that one of the most important features of their profession is that it allows an opportunity for them to positively influence student development, and 83 percent of teachers believe that the teaching schedule is in line with their personal commitments.

The report showed that the educational qualifications of the Kingdom’s teachers are not higher as compared to the global level. Forty percent of teachers hold a master’s degree in all countries participating in TALIS and 90 percent of teachers in Finland, but the percentage of master’s degree holders does not reach six percent among teachers in the Kingdom. There is a very small percentage of teaching holding a doctoral degree, not exceeding one in every thousand teachers as an overwhelming majority (90 percent) of teachers are holders of a bachelor’s degree in the Kingdom.