Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): A few days ago, the Undersecretary for Resources and Services at the Bahraini Ministry of Education Mohammed Mubarak Juma appeared to inform the public that "the Education Ministry is currently finalizing the employment procedures of a total of 797 Bahraini teachers, who had graduated from the Bahrain Teachers' College, as well as from universities in Bahrain and abroad, and met the requirements."

This statement came after a popular outrageous campaign against the policy of the Education Ministry of employing foreigners and leaving Bahraini teachers unemployed and the failure of the Ministry in dealing with the forged certificates issue. The Education Ministry has become the most prominent example of corruption, nepotism and discrimination.

A number of MPs attempted to whitewash the Ministry's reputation by lauding the step of employing 797 Bahraini teachers; however, many doubted the credibility of the Ministry and didn't believe that Al-Nuaimi and his two undersecretaries Fawzi Al-Jowder and Mohammed Mubarak can change the corrupt approach that forms their work attitude overnight.

His claims are not enough to whitewash his deception. The Ministry has dismissed on the first day of the school year (September 2, 2018) a Bahraini teacher, Basel Abduljabbar Mirza, a social guidance specialist at Ahmed Al-Omran Boys Secondary School. Matters don't end here. Here is the story of Mahmoud Ali Abd Abbas Hamdan written on his Instagram account.

He says: "After four years of working in private teaching in a very special job, I was accepted in public teaching in 2016. After I submitted my resignation to the school, after the teachers' working hours and after checking with the human resources in the Ministry of Education, I was told that the investigations department didn't pass my job application and there was no reason given."

"After remaining home for a whole scholastic year, I returned to private teaching in 2017 and in the same previous school; however, the surprise was that the Directorate of Private Education sent a fax rejecting rehiring me and without a reason too. When I checked with the Directorate of Private Education and even brought them rehabilitation paper issued  by the Public Prosecution, although my file is clean, and a certificate of good conduct, yet to no avail. They sent the papers to the office of undersecretary of private education Jaafar Al-Sheikh, who when I asked to explain what is going on, said: "The suspension came from a higher authority and I can do nothing about it. I am waiting for their response."

Hamdan continued "the application was sent to the office of Dr. Fawzi Al-Jowder in March and I haven't yet received any response or justification for the suspension, despite the repeated calls."

"It is not about money at all, thank God. It is about a right taken unrightfully and about the profession of education and teaching which I find hard to be away from," he further stated.

"Although my certificate is educational, I am suspended from teaching in public and private schools," he stressed.

Simply like that, Hamdan was suspended from teaching in the education sector, in both its private and public institutions. The Ministry of Interior doesn't want him and even if an investor accepts to hire him in his own school, the ministry of education refuses.

Sharaf Al-Mosawi, the chairman of the Bahrain Transparency Society, summarized the state of popular doubt in the ministry of education saying "the standard of transparency is to announce names and their years of graduation, especially that there are those who have graduated since years without being hired in the education profession". Bahrainis started to doubt whether teachers are real Bahrainis. They have the right to doubt, for naturalization has also forged the meaning of the word "Bahraini".

Arabic Version