Shock, confusion and uncertainty for expat teachers in Kuwait after thousands dismissed

In testimonies to The New Arab, expatriate teachers whose services Kuwait recently terminated describe the shock and confusion they are experiencing as the new academic year approaches and the impact of the Education Ministry's decision on their futures and obligations.

As preparations were underway for the start of the current academic year, Kuwait's decision to terminate the services of more than 7,000 expatriate teachers from Arab and other nationalities came as a "real shock", leaving the teachers and their families confused amid official efforts to gradually "Kuwaitise" specialisations.

The Kuwaiti Education Ministry justified its decision by saying it falls within the first phase of a plan to address the surplus in the education sector, estimated at 33,268 teachers, including female teachers.

However, several teachers affected by the decision told The New Arab about the negative repercussions on every aspect of their lives, as well as the uncertainty surrounding their futures.

Yasmin, an Egyptian primary school mathematics teacher, described the moment she received a notification through the government Sahel app informing her of the Education Ministry's decision to terminate her services.

"It is truly a shock. Just as I was enthusiastically preparing for the start of the new academic year, I was surprised by the Kuwaiti Education Ministry's decision to terminate my services," she told The New Arab.

"On 6 September, we returned to work in preparation for receiving the students in the coming days. The following day, I read the news about the termination of the services of 7,019 expatriate teachers, but I did not imagine that I would be among them. On the third day, I received an official notification that my services had been terminated, something that was not part of my plans," she said.

"I indeed have three months before my services officially end, but I am completely unprepared for the next step, and I do not know what I will do after the deadline expires," Yasmin added.

While stressing that the Education Ministry has every right to terminate contracts with teachers it considers surplus to requirements, or even for other reasons, she said, "I wish we had been informed of such a life-changing decision at a different time.

"If, for example, it had been at the end of the previous academic year, things would have been completely different for me and for hundreds and thousands of teachers. We could have settled our affairs during the summer holiday and determined our options without time pressure, especially since teaching is the only profession we know and we cannot act easily at the beginning of the academic year, bearing in mind that we have financial and family obligations and others," Yasmin concluded.

The Kuwaiti Education Ministry announced on 7 September that Minister Sayed Jalal Al-Tabtabaei directed the relevant sectors to begin implementing a gradual plan to address the surplus in several specialisations, improve the efficiency of human and financial resource management, achieve optimal use of personnel, and maintain the stability of the educational process.

The ministry said the move was part of its approach to balancing the distribution of educational staff, empowering national talent, and aligning the number of teaching staff with schools' actual needs.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a secondary school history teacher and one of the Egyptian teachers whose services were recently terminated, described the decision as "confusing" in terms of its timing.

"I returned about two weeks ago from my summer holiday in my country. It is an annual holiday that I have been accustomed to taking for more than 10 years after the end of the academic year, and then I return before the start of the new academic year," Ibrahim described.

"But today we are facing a new reality. I knew that I would leave my profession one day, but I imagined that moment would come at the end of a particular academic year, when I would be informed, as had previously happened with many colleagues whom we used to hold farewell parties for," he said.

"I live in Kuwait with my wife and three children, and I have monthly obligations like every head of a household, foremost among them the monthly rent for the apartment and an outstanding loan from one of the local banks, which is what worries me most because I do not know what opportunities are available to me to find work, especially since more than 7,000 colleagues are now without work," he added. "I do not want to spend my end-of-service benefit paying off that loan. At the same time, leaving the country without repaying it is obviously not an option."

"I know many people who have bank loans worth several times the value of mine, which have not been fully repaid, as well as others who are committed to different monthly instalments for household and electrical appliances," he further said.

Meanwhile, Ahood Saad, a Kuwaiti mathematics teacher, described the impact of the Education Ministry's latest decision.

"After the decision to dismiss my expatriate colleagues, only three female teachers remain in the department where I work. This is not enough to keep up with the classes, which means our teaching workload will increase unless this shortage is addressed. Some school departments are now facing shortages, such as the computer department, which has been reduced to only two teachers," she told TNA.

"The loss is not only about numbers. We have also lost skills and capabilities, as my departing colleagues have diverse experience in their fields of specialisation, and we benefited from them throughout the years we worked alongside them in the department," she described.

"I remember among the colleagues in other departments one music education teacher who was distinguished by her competence and also played a prominent role in school activities and the educational field, alongside another teacher specialising in physical education who led the morning activities and the school radio programme every day," she added.

While the Education Ministry has not specified the nationalities of the teachers whose services it decided to terminate, previous reports on its replacement policy indicate that Kuwait's public education sector has historically relied on expatriate teachers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and other Arab countries.

Sources told TNA that the largest proportion affected were Egyptian teachers, as they constitute the largest community in the education sector, particularly during the period following Kuwait's liberation from the Iraqi invasion in 1991.

The ministry has previously terminated the services of expatriate teachers in recent years, particularly in 2023, when the services of more than 2,000 expatriate workers in the education sector were terminated.

They included 1,815 teachers and 209 female teachers who held department head positions, which it said at the time was part of a "policy of replacing and Kuwaitising educational jobs".

The Kuwaiti Education Ministry said the total number of teaching staff is about 91,761 teachers and female teachers, excluding those in supervisory positions.

National staff account for about 70.6 per cent of them, while Gulf teachers and those classified as illegally residing account for about 10.1 per cent.

Teachers residing in Kuwait from Arab and other nationalities account for about 19.3 per cent.

It said the results of the study showed an actual surplus estimated at 33,268 teachers and female teachers among citizens, contracted Gulf nationals and those classified as illegally residing (bidoon), in addition to teachers residing in Kuwait from Arab and other nationalities.

The surplus was found in several specialisations in which staffing levels exceed the actual needs of schools.

As part of its general budget, Kuwait allocates more than 2 billion Kuwaiti dinars (about $6.52 billion) annually to the Education Ministry.

More than 95 per cent of this is spent on salaries alone, making it the government body with the highest expenditure from the state budget, which has continued to increase year after year.

The Education Ministry also accounted for more than 13 billion dinars (about $42.4 billion) between 2018 and 2023.

Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here.