Covid impact - Private school teachers in Bahrain complain of non-payment of salary for months

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Private school teachers are one unique group of professionals whose economic status is no way a match to their social status and the pandemic situation has taken this mismatch to new heights. Many teachers across private schools in Bahrain complain that they have not been paid salaries for months while the workplace stress has spiralled. And among them, the teachers at budget schools are the worst affected. 

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, a few private school teachers said that those in charge of grooming the leaders of tomorrow remain perennially encapsulated in a life of stress and disappointment. Whilst counterparts at government schools earn between BD650 and BD1,500 depending on specialisations and years of experience, the private school teachers draw salaries ranging between BD150 and BD450, something only equivalent to blue-collar jobs. 

“I am yet to receive salaries for the past three months. The school management has its own reasons in the form of poor fee collection, many students leaving and increasing expenses. But do these explanations substitute the hard work we are putting in?” a private school teacher, asked The Daily Tribune, speaking on a condition of anonymity. 

“One can see a lot of propaganda about how online education is affecting the sociological and psychological health of students. But it seems no-body cares about us teachers, who too are supposed to be in good sociological and psychological health. 

“At least ten hours a day, we are glued to our smartphones or laptops, taking classes or answering queries on WhatsApp apart from giving out assignments and notes. We have to record video lessons, which is not easy as we are teaching an imaginary audience. 

“I personally know many teachers who have gone through psychological trauma during this period. Unfortunately, they have no spokespersons in any of the social quarters to stand up and speak at their behest.” 

Another teacher said that throughout the pandemic period the members of her community were totally unsuccessful in striking a balance between personal life and professional life. “There is hardly any minute left to focus on personal life as we are always engaged in a non-stop cycle of planning, preparing, recording, assessing and so on.”  She said she feels a bit relieved as the transformation from online to offline is gradually becoming a reality. 

Adding to their plight, salary cuts have demoralised many private school teachers in Bahrain. “My salary has been reduced by 20 per cent. And when I protested, the school management asked me to take it or leave. Finally, I mellowed down and adhered to their stances. What else could I have done?” a third teacher told The Daily Tribune. 

She said the ordeal is more intense with many parents consistently emerging in front as villainous characters. “Some parents know nothing other than complaining against teachers. They are very good at making our lives miserable.

One of the core jobs of some mothers, or even some fathers for that matter, is to watch their children learn before the smartphone or computer. And they disrupt classes most often as staying quiet proves to be a difficult thing to them. As they can’t simply stay off the process, they monitor the classes non-stop, nurturing the lone ambition to criticise teachers.  

“One may find it hard to believe that there are parents, who shoot mails to principals every day complaining about teachers. Some even take to social media platforms to criticize teachers. All of them are thriving as we can’t afford to pay lawyers. Otherwise, many teachers would have been multi-millionaires by now after winning defamation suits filed against those parents, who insult them on social media platforms.”  

A teacher with a leading CBSE school in Bahrain, said, parents have no right to argue against private tuitions offered by private school teachers. “I agree that private tuitions are a parallel source of income for many teachers. But I can’t find anything morally wrong in that.

Neither are we compromising on our teaching standards at the school nor are we going down on commitments to our students there. “Our private time beyond the schooling hours are used to offer tuition and how could the parents complain about this?”  

In a statement issued earlier, a prominent private school management said that the issue of pending salaries to teachers was being addressed with urgent priority. The management owed the financial crunch to non payment of fees from the large number of students.