India Vision: |Venad| Special Feature - Indian Teachers in UAE : All work and low pay

Image for Indian teachers: All work and low pay

Courtesy : Gulf News

They earn as little as Dh2,000 a month. No, they are not bus drivers or carpenters. We're talking about school teachers from India.

Indian teachers are commonly pinned to the bottom of the pay scale in private schools in the UAE. There is no escape from this trend, they say, even when their academic history and professional experience is second to none.

The years-long appeal to school owners and education authorities to raise the minimum salary of Dh2,000 has gone unheeded.

Desperate to make ends meet, many teachers have turned to illegal ways of making money on the side, such as tutoring students privately at home.

Not affordable

Many private schools say they can't afford to pay handsome wages unless their income rises, on the back of higher fees. But asking parents to, in effect, partly bear the burden of furnishing a livelihood for teachers is especially tough for Indian schools – it is not uncommon for their students to be from low-income homes.

And though officials are quick to control fee hikes every year, they have remained noticeably silent on the idea of a higher salary benchmark for teachers.

But it is not just about money.

Some parents habitually single out the class-teacher – in a small list of usual suspects – for their child's academic failures.

Teachers from all backgrounds said society is increasingly doing away with the traditional honour it bestowed on educators. Tutors complain they are mocked and treated as machines at work.

For many, it is a dead end.

"I don't feel like a real teacher. I'm not motivated," admitted an Indian teacher from Our Own English High School (OOEHS) in Dubai.

She said her salary was around Dh2,500 per month, which includes housing allowance.

After taking six to eight classes between 8am and 1pm, she said she is often "kept back" a few hours more for office meetings and extra-curricular events.

"I have to push myself to stay on even longer to check students' homework and prepare lessons for the next day.

Feeling depressed

"My child feels depressed if I bring my work home because he knows we won't be spending time together then."

She pointed out that a similar routine is played out every day by teachers across the board, even if the school day is officially only six hours long, on average.

Teachers shared their stories with XPRESS on condition that their identities be kept strictly confidential, because they feared their schools would punish them for speaking out publicly.

Another Indian teacher, at the Sharjah branch of OOEHS, said: "If I'm a post-graduate with teaching experience at a senior girls' school in India, should I be worth only Dh2,000 a month? Even after three years of service?

"Taxi drivers make more money. Why should I care to give my best?" she said. The operator of both OOEHS branches – GEMS Education – did not reveal what standards it expects its small army of teachers to meet, or what salaries and benefits they take home.

The group runs a dozen Indian schools across the UAE and its global network is reportedly the single largest employer of Indian teachers outside India.

Stand-alone schools like the Indian High School Dubai and Sharjah Indian School also failed to comment on teachers' qualifications and pay. Not enough

Meanwhile, a teacher from India said she started her career here at just Dh1,300. "I came here in 2001 on my husband's visa, after working at a reputable school back home. I joined the School of Knowledge in Sharjah a bit later and now earn over Dh2,000. But this is not enough to support a family," said the mother-of-two.

Foreign private schools can legally hire female teachers who have a residence visa sponsored by their husband or father, provided that all charges and paperwork for the labour card are settled by the school.

A teacher at Gulf Asian English School, Sharjah, said some schools used to pay those charges – around Dh1,500 per year – by taking a chunk out of their salaries. The Ministry of Education has recently managed to all but end that practice, according to her.

The teachers, however, said 'exploitation' is not the only hurdle in the job market. "I believe there's partiality, in general, in paying teachers," said a primary-level teacher from an Indian school in Garhoud.

"I'm off to Canada soon, where they have equal pay for equal work," she said.
Totally unfair

A British teacher from the UK-curriculum Winchester School in Jebel Ali said she earns over Dh10,000 a month.

"I get what is known here as a 'European package'. That can be Dh18,000 in some of the American schools. Otherwise, many of us [Western nationals] will not come here. "It is dramatically different from the Asian package – and totally unfair."

She said Indian teachers were "no less qualified or dedicated." She added that teachers are generally less respected here. "Back home, it's a real career. You get a pension, a trade union. You lead a certain lifestyle and it's something you retire on," she said.

Teachers at Uptown High, an IB (International Baccalaureate) school in Muhaisnah, earn up to Dh15,000 per month, according to a staff member, who added senior tutors with a managerial role take home an even bigger pay cheque.

A Hindi-language teacher in a school in Oud Metha said neither her students nor their parents treat her honourably. "They say: 'What will we do with Hindi?' That gets demoralising very quickly," she said.

"They don't see education as gaining knowledge any more – it has become a 'cost-benefit-analysis' thing".

The exact number of Indian teachers employed in schools across the country is, however, not readily available.

By the rules

The Ministry of Education sent a notice to UAE private schools in August 2001 stating that administrative, teaching and technical staff must be paid a monthly basic salary of at least Dh2,000

New study

A study published by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority last week says "the average household spending on education in Dubai is Dh2,711 [per month]".

The price of eduction

Average annual fees:
Indian schools:
Primary: Dh4,000
Secondary: Dh5,000
Senior: Dh6,000

International (American, British, International Baccalaureate) Schools:

Kindergarten-Primary: Dh15,000
Grade 6: Dh25,000
Grade 12: Dh38,000

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The region south of Cochin centered around Quilion came to be known as Venad. It was an autonomous kingdom within the Chera empire. The port was visited by Nestorian Christians, Chinese and Arabs. A new calendar was established called 'Kolla Varsham' (Quilion year) starting in AD 825.The Kulasekara empire lasted for three centuries. }