By MAY ASHOUR
Published: 9th August 2007
MORE than 35 unemployed women staged a protest yesterday in front of the Education Ministry’s Employee Affairs Directorate, Manama, demanding teaching jobs.
The women held up signs and banners for two hours from 10.30am, demanding to speak to top officials about alleged inequities in the ministry’s hiring process.
Most of them hold teaching and information educational methods degrees from Bahrain University.
They claimed they had passed the ministry’s employment tests several times, but been regularly waitlisted.
The ministry announced on Tuesday that it had finalised 473 new jobs for the new academic year, including teaching positions and promotions.
By MAY ASHOUR
Published: 9th August 2007
MORE than 35 unemployed women staged a protest yesterday in front of the Education Ministry’s Employee Affairs Directorate, Manama, demanding teaching jobs.
The women held up signs and banners for two hours from 10.30am, demanding to speak to top officials about alleged inequities in the ministry’s hiring process.
Most of them hold teaching and information educational methods degrees from Bahrain University.
They claimed they had passed the ministry’s employment tests several times, but been regularly waitlisted.
The ministry announced on Tuesday that it had finalised 473 new jobs for the new academic year, including teaching positions and promotions.
One applicant who was not included, Rabab Maki Ali, said she graduated with honours last year and applied to be a teacher twice, but got waitlisted both times.
She claimed that the ministry waitlisted her in favour of lesser qualified women who had scored lower grade point averages in college.
“I can’t stand this any longer, I need a job as soon as possible,” said Ms Ali.
The women, some of whom say they have been unemployed since 2002, insist that their specialisations were sought-after and that there ought to be plenty of jobs for them, particularly under the His Majesty King Hamad’s Project for Future Schools.
Fatima Al Owaynati said she was tired of having to re-sit the exams to qualify for a teaching job every year despite having passed them once already.
“We are tired of this constant exam tension. We passed it once, why take it again?”
Zainab Abbas Ahmed, a math education graduate, accused the ministry of favouritism, saying at least five applicants bearing the same last name were hired this year.
Education Ministry public relations head Dr Nabeel Al Asoumi said that the women’s specialisation was in demand, but that the ministry received more qualified applications than they needed.
“The ministry is the one that decides its needs, not the applicants,” he said.
The protesting women also accused the ministry of a lack of transparency in its examination and acceptance criteria, saying the concept of “competence” was a vague one.
“There is nothing vague about hiring teachers for their competence,” said Dr Al Asoumi.
“The teachers are hired on the basis of a written test, an oral test, and an interview.
“The highest cumulative scorers are hired, and that is what we mean by competence.”
On whether there is favouritism by hiring teachers who share the same last name, Dr Alassoomi said that there was nothing wrong with hiring “even 20 sisters from the same family, if they all came out on top in the exams”.
“We do not look at these women’s families or religious sects. We only look at them as Bahrainis,” he said.
Dr Al Alassoomi advised the women to register with the National Employment Project, and also encouraged them to apply for jobs in the private sector, where their specialisations were in higher demand.
He said they could also apply to the Labour Ministry’s rehabilitation programme to gain skills that would make them more employable.
© Gulf Daily News
