After teachers ... researchers ‘excluded’ from replacement

Decision after reviewing dimensions in fiscal ’20/’21

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 25: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) agreed to exclude expatriate social and psychological researchers from the Kuwaitization of government jobs this year after excluding teachers, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In a letter, the commission officially informed the Ministry of Education about agreeing to exclude nonKuwaiti employees in social research, social service and psychological research positions among the group of 572 social, educational and sports services jobs from CSC Resolution number 11/2017 – rules and procedures for Kuwaitization of government jobs in all sectors.

The commission clarified the decision was taken after reviewing the topic and its dimensions in fiscal 2020/2021 – the third year of implementing the replacement policy. This is aimed at giving social and psychological researchers the opportunity to train fresh graduate nationals in preparation for replacement.

Policy

Last December, the CSC notified the ministry that 286 employees are covered by the replacement policy in the current year, including 245 from the group of social and educational services. The daily had earlier published this in its entirety and warned against the risks of including researcher in the replacement plan, considering its impact on educational activities. This is in view of the dire need of schools for such manpower, as many schools are operating without social and psychological specialists, which led to a number of behavioral problems among students.

In response to the letter of the aforementioned office, the ministry, represented by the Department of Social and Psychological Services, on Dec 29 last year, sent a letter to the CSC requesting for postponement of the replacement plan in order to prepare for it properly. This is due to the negative impact of implementing the decision on social and psychological services offered to students.

The ministry mentioned in its letter the current number of non-Kuwaiti researchers engaged in each field, and the number of psychological and social researchers it needs.

The total number of expatriates and GCC citizens working in this field reached 454 researchers (358 males and 96 females). There is a need to cover shortage in schools– around 527 researchers including 283 for social service and 244 for psychological service. The calculation for each researcher was done according to Ministerial Resolution number 524/2007 on setting the standard for social and psychological service jobs at different educational stages along with religious institutes and kindergartens.

Implement

At a time the ministry confirmed its plan to apply the replacement policy in a way that does not affect educational and training processes, it mentioned in the letter certain justifications which make it difficult to fully implement the Kuwaitization policy.

These justifications include shortage of social researchers, low number of male psychological researchers in light of Kuwaitis’ reluctance to apply for this job, and opening new schools annually while the number of retirees and resignations is increasing.

It also pointed out the decreasing number of graduates from the College of Social Sciences specializing in social work, indicating that agreeing to postpone the replacement process will help in reaching an acceptable degree of success to attract Kuwaitis to the social and psychological fields.

The ministry explained: “In order to encourage Kuwaiti researchers to work in this field, the graduates of the Faculty of Arts were accepted to work as social researchers after completing a training course to qualify them to work in schools, but the results were not as desired.”

The current social and psychological specialists are non-Kuwaitis. After implementing the replacement policy in the past two years, they have attended many training courses within the professional development plans for researchers, whether at the level of the central administration or educational districts, for them to gain more experience and understand the nature of students. They are more compatible with the Kuwaiti society as they understand its problems and more familiar with Kuwaiti families.