As government entities revise existing regulations and educational requirements for school teachers it is said that more teachers are shying away from the profession. At the same time education providers are finding it harder to find good quality teachers due to complicated regulations licensing and educational requirements set by government entities.

Teachers are already required to have at least a bachelor's or equivalent university degree. Subject teachers on the other hand require a bachelor's degree in their area of teaching while class teachers can work with a bachelor's degree in education according to education chiefs.

Adding to that Abdulrahman Nassir Chief of Customer Relations Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) said: "All teachers in Dubai's private schools have to be approved by the KHDA and any new teacher should meet the minimum education requirements."

Challenges faced by schools

School officials told Khaleej Times that they are indeed on the constant lookout for quality teachers however given the hiring criteria set by education honchos seeking good talent can sometimes become challenging.

Clive Pierrepont Director of Communications at the Taaleem Group of Schools said: "We believe that the quality of a school cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. We therefore seek only the very best and experienced teachers from around the world to work in our schools."

However Clive said: "Making sure that these sought-after individuals will meet all local hiring criteria and then being in a position to issue a timely offer of employment can at times be the most challenging part of hiring teaching talent in a very competitive market."

Dr Linda Rush Vice-President for Professional Learning GEMS Education and Honorary Professorial Fellow University of Manchester UK said: "With B.Ed. becoming compulsory for primary and middle school it has trimmed down the number of prospective candidates in the market. Clear career trajectories including a rich range of professional learning and development opportunities are important attractors."

Pierrepont explained: "Sometimes it so happens that expatriate teachers with several years of teaching experience in a certain subject sometimes do not necessarily get a job they applied for ... because they don't have an equivalent subject degree."

For example if a teacher has taught Biology at the high school level for 14 years and is an authority on the subject the teacher will not get the job unless he or she has an equivalent degree in Biology. "Situations like these sometimes detract teachers from taking up the job" he added.

Senior officials at the KHDA confirmed that it is indeed working closely with other government entities to revise existing regulations for school teachers.

However details of the new regulations and educational requirements were not revealed since it is "still a work-in-progress".

"Any teacher should have subject-specific educational qualification" said Nassir of KHDA. "As of now the KHDA requires all school teachers to meet minimum education qualification requirements to work in Dubai's private schools. Subject teachers should have a bachelor's degree in their area of teaching and class teachers can work with a bachelor's degree in education. To work as teaching assistants the authority recognises high school completion as the minimum requirement."

New reforms will be added over and top of the existing requirements set by the government agencies. However the new reforms are applicable only to new teachers and will not affect existing teachers.

Mark Ford Principal at Dubai British School said there is indeed an increase in competition for good teachers. "The number of international schools across the world is increasing and as a consequence there is increased competition for good teachers."

He added: "We expect our teachers to have the appropriate qualifications - a degree in their subject and a teaching qualification - and at least two years' experience in the profession." However Ford also said that there are certain benefits of having a rigorous hiring process.

He said: "We establish two basic things when hiring a teacher before we consider any other value added factors. First will the children be safe and well cared for with this teacher? And secondly are the children going to get a high quality learning experience in the classroom. A rigorous hiring process ensures that both these things happen."

Dr Rush said: "We stand or fall by the quality of our recruitment. Research indicates that high level of qualification is linked with high subject knowledge which in turn impacts on the quality of student learning and success in public examinations." She added: "We believe that maintaining a strict hiring process involving clear criteria around qualifications subject knowledge teaching experience self-presentation and the GEMS Teaching Standards ensures student achievement. This is proven in our examination results."

Challenges of new teachers

Existing teachers are also under the impression that the current process for hiring teachers has become very complicated. Lina Sudarshan a Mathematics teacher working in Sharjah said: "The younger generation does not seem to be very keen to take up a teaching profession. The Ministry of Education licensing procedure education requirements and low salaries are driving them away from taking up the job."

Another teacher who spoke to Khaleej Times under the condition of anonymity said: "The Ministry licensing procedure requires for expatriate teachers to send their documents to their home country for a stamp of genuineness. There are also several layers of paper work in the UAE for the same."

She added: "New teachers sometimes go to agents who do the paper work on their behalf and the documentation can sometimes cost them Dh3000. Teachers are required to provide fresh certificate of genuineness each time they join a different school."

She said the process is expensive time consuming and in many cases teacher salaries in many expatriate schools does not exceed Dh3000.

Dhanusha Gokulan The resident transport and traffic expert with a touch of music culture and youth. I report on everything from rent hikes to traffic jams from 'most expensive' experiences to tallest buildings from encouraging upcoming talents to camels laughing. I've been a journalist for seven years and I am ridiculously passionate about music books internet memes Facebook procrastination and the occasional sport activity (candycrush).