Kuwait’s education ministry to cut hundreds of foreign teachers

Kuwait’s Ministry of Education is preparing to terminate hundreds of expatriate teachers and employees in March, according to reports.

Among those to be cut are supervisors and heads of department who have exceeded 34 years of service, ministry sources told Kuwait Times.

Syrian teachers that were previously exempt from any cuts because of the civil war in their home country will also be included.

The sources said the affected teachers would mainly be in the Islamic studies, computer studies, science, social studies, mathematics, Arabic and English subject areas for intermediate and secondary education.

The country has been undertaking a policy of nationalising up to 25 per cent of teaching jobs each year, although exactly how many staff have been cut annually is uncertain

Read: Kuwait to axe 25% of expat teachers

Last March, the ministry denied it had made 800 teachers redundant.

Read: Kuwait education ministry denies dismissing 800 expat teachers

Further cuts of foreign staff are taking place across the government under the instructions of the finance ministry.

Departments have been told to prepare lists of staff to be made redundant in the next fiscal year, beginning in April, as the government workers towards making all public sector staff Kuwaiti by 2022.

Read: Kuwait ministries told to begin purge of foreign staff