Education Ministry: Teachers Reassigned 'According to Need'

The Ministry of Education announced the continuation of measures to reorganize the workforce in schools, starting next Sunday, in implementation of directives from Minister of Education Sayed Jalal Al-Tabatabai. In a press statement, the ministry said that administrative reform in the educational sector is proceeding along two parallel and complementary tracks. The first track involves redistributing male and female teachers among schools according to the actual need for specific educational specializations. The second track entails reorganizing and assigning supervisory educational positions in line with the new organizational structure of school administrations and the approved job titles, based on a comprehensive review of workforce data and its current distribution across schools.

The ministry clarified that the current phase of the first track includes redistributing male and female teachers among schools according to each school’s actual needs across various educational specializations, taking into account the number of classrooms, students, and capacity, with the aim of achieving balance in the teaching staff and making optimal use of available personnel, in preparation for the second phase of the surplus management plan. It added that the second track involves reorganizing and assigning supervisory educational positions according to the new organizational structure for schools.

The ministry pointed out that a review of actual data on the number of teaching staff in schools revealed a clear disparity in the distribution of personnel among some schools compared to their actual needs, while other schools have a genuine need for the same specializations. Among the cases identified by the ministry, it was found that one middle school had 66 Islamic education teachers, whereas its actual need was only 11. Similarly, one school had 22 art education teachers, while its actual need for that same specialization was only 4.

The ministry added that the data also showed a similar disparity in one kindergarten, which had 30 teachers for only four classrooms. This underscores the importance of aligning the distribution of educational staff with the actual needs of each school, ensuring that available expertise is directed to the sites with the greatest need, and achieving balance among schools.