Independent Schools to Qatarize all administrative posts

The Supreme Education Council’s Shared Services Directorate held on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 a meeting with leaders of independent schools at Al Sharq Hotel to discuss matters related to staffing in schools. Attending the meeting was Mr. Tariq Al-Abdulla, Director of Shared Services, Mr. Eissa El Hor, the Human Resources Manager and Mr. Jassim Al Muftah, the head of recruitment, in addition to independent schools operators.

The discussion included topics such as fixing the appointments of Qatari personnel in independent schools, qatarization of administrative occupations and updating personnel data. The right of the operators to assign employees was once again stressed and the role of Shared services and Human resources is to support schools in terms of ensuring that the applicants qualifications comply with the job requirements.

During the meeting Mr. Al-Abdulla stressed the following points:

• The role of operators in assigning the staff that received training courses in their schools through direct hire either in available vacancies or through the replacement and Qatarization process.

• Report on technical and administrative aspects related to trainees (those who have completed the training path courses) in schools by June 30, 2010.

• Complete qatarization of all administrative posts and not renewing contracts for non-Qatari personnel whenever a Qatari personnel is available.

• Refrain from hiring non-Qatari personnel working in remote schools without the consent of the original employer.

• Emphasize the role of the operators in nomination and appointment process to fill vacancies in their schools.

• The Supreme Education Council will hire the services of professional recruiting agencies to find qualified teachers in rare disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology and will oversee the hiring process as per the regulations of the SEC. The operators will thus have a pool of qualified personnel to choose from and the new teachers will be required to get the professional license within one year from their day of hire.

• The schools are required to update their personnel data as per the approved structure of each school and as per the financial benefits associated with each post.

The discussants also reviewed the status of the employees who have completed their training during the current academic year (training track courses) and were assigned to different schools. These employees must be given the necessary training before they undergo any assessment process to determine their eligibility to fill the newly assigned posts.

Mr. Al Hor asked for an immediate update of schools data. He pointed out that the delay in updating will adversely affect the process of creating electronic linkages among schools and with various state institutions, including ministries of Interior and labor, housing department, retirement and pensions. Al Hor asked the schools to ensure that the job requirements are completed before they are sent to human resources for approval. He finally conquered that the application of the licesencing system will resolve the issue of eligibility of the hired personnel.

On their part, the operators asked for the lists of teachers and administrators who finished their training during the current school year to help them choose the required staff to fill up the current vacancies.