Views /Opinion

The category of society that endures the most on the job while not receiving their annual leave commensurate with the hard work put in throughout the year, are teachers.
They are exposed to harsh physical and psychological pressures, which require that they be given sufficient rest to regain their energy, dispose of the effects of teaching and its big worries and tasks, renew their vigour, resume their work with more motivation and start a new school year with better performance.
Despite their hard work, teachers have been deprived of their right to a fair annual leave, since it has been significantly reduced despite the bitter ordeal of teaching that they go through each year. There is no comparison between teachers and others in terms of the nature of work and the magnitude of efforts exercised through the year.
According to an objective comparison, state employees get an average of 45 days of holiday, besides Ramadan and Eid, totalling 65 vacation days. But teachers’ vacation has been reduced to just 45 days including Ramadan and Eid, taking their rights away.
Due to the harsh nature of a teacher’s job, he or she should have more vacation days than other government employees.
It is sufficient to note that a teacher continuously stands hours explaining, monitoring and grading, as well as preparing lessons, correcting students’ homework and viewing e-learning lessons. Therefore, teachers require more leave.
So why force them to attend school for two additional weeks after the end of the grading period. Doing so makes them more vulnerable to physical and psychological stress and increases the risk of chronic physical and mental exhaustion.
Here, it becomes necessary to reduce schooling days by bringing forward the start of the school year, modifying the timetable for the tests so that it starts in the middle of the fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, the students holidays in the middle of June, and teachers’ holidays at the end of the same month.
The school year for teachers should resume on the first of September, while students attend school in the middle of the month. In this way, we would fulfil the rights of our valued teachers and show some appreciation for their hard and constructive work throughout the year.
I have heard and read the reply of the Communication and Information Centre officer of the Education Council about female teachers educating girls at a primary school about ideas that are in conflict with the teachings of our religion, which I have recently commented on in one of my articles. 
I appreciate the response to parents from our colleagues in the Council’s call centre, assuring them that everything is under control. 
However, the response was contradictory when a mother denied on a radio programme that such an incident took place, saying that they did not receive any complaint for the past four years.
While another parent acknowledged complaining a year ago about a teacher regarding a similar incident, which resulted in the termination of the teacher’s contract. However, the Education Council officer said that the teacher was on training. 
How can he deny the incident, and then acknowledge it by giving an excuse saying that the teacher was on training?