‘Current budget not sufficient to pay housing grants for expat teachers’
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KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: Assistant Undersecretary for Financial Affairs at Ministry of Education Yousef Al-Najjar says the current budget of the ministry is not sufficient to pay housing allowances for female expatriate teachers, even though the Civil Service Commission had recently approved the provision of KD 150 monthly housing allowance retroactively from April 1, 2011, reports Al-Rai daily.
He affirmed that he will request Ministry of Finance to include the total allowance value in the budget so that it can be disbursed to the teachers as soon as it is approved. Al-Najjar indicated that they coordinated with the Administrative Affairs Sector to identify the number of female expatriate teachers and calculate the total value of the housing allowance in order to refer that to Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, a number of lawmakers wondered why the monthly housing allowance for female expatriate teachers has been increased from KD60 to KD150 when Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis are deprived from rental allowance.
They wondered why such a decision was taken when the government is working on reducing subsidies and financial allocations for overseas treatment, adding that the government is talking about reducing expenditures and controlling depletion while approving increase in housing allowance for expatriate teachers.
In this regard, MP Yousef Al-Zalzalah said Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Bader Al-Essa has clarified that the decision is based on an appeal submitted on the verdict issued by the Constitutional Court after which Civil Service Commission obligated Ministry of Education to enforce the verdict.
In the meantime, Assistant Undersecretary for Infrastructure and Planning at Ministry of Education Dr Khalid Al-Rashed announced that the crisis of poor air conditioning in schools has ended due to installation of air conditioning units sponsored by His Highness the Amir through an Amiri grant, reports Al-Rai daily.
He said the units were installed in the general diwan of the ministry and the schools of Capital, Jahra and Hawally educational zones, indicating that the number of air conditioning units was sufficient to deal with the crisis witnessed in some sectors of the ministry and the old schools in the abovementioned educational zones.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Finance has approved the request of Ministry of Education to increase the value of the contract allocated for maintaining air conditioners in the ministry’s buildings and procure 53 air conditioning units worth KD 11,790 within the budget of fourth chapter for the fiscal year of 2015- 2016.
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