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Ras Al Khaimah: At least six public schools here remain without principals after the Ministry of Education approved the retirement request of those principals and failed to find replacements for them.
The Ras Al Khaimah Educational Zone has urged the principals of these schools to put off their retirement decisions until the end of the academic year, but the principals insisted on their immediate retirement to take advantage of the Dh6,000 increment given for retired employees.
A senior official at the zone said it was a critical time to carry out the retirement decision which negatively affected the educational process. The official added that the zone has tried to persuade the principals to postpone their decisions, but there had been no positive response.
The official said the retirement requests were processed and the necessary approvals were granted as the principals fulfilled the legal conditions to apply for retirement.
Abdullah Al Hadiya, the retired principal of Abdul Rahman Bin Awf Basic Boys School, said the Ras Al Khaimah Educational Zone should be held responsible for the failure to replace the retired principals.
"Other principals in other emirates have also been granted retirement, but the concerned educational zones instantly replaced them and so no ill effect was felt on the school or the educational process in those emirates," he said.
"I have served 26 years in the educational field and the maximum grade I reached was the third grade in which I will be entitled to a Dh100 increment annually, which means Dh400 increment till I reach 30 years of service," he added.
"The latest 70 per cent salary increase for the public sector granted a maximum of Dh6,000 for the retired staff. There is no comparison between Dh400 and Dh6,000," he said, adding that the retirement at that particular point in time was the right decision for the principals.
He said the problem with the Ministry of Education is that the employees remain in their grades with no promotion, and in a few years they reach the top of the allowances of that grade.
"Many of my students in other ministries have been promoted to higher grades than my own, and that situation has depressed the people in the educational field, indicating that they will get nothing even if they were creative," he said.
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