Irish Education Minister arrives, plans meetings with Irish teachers in UAE

ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 12th Jun, 2019) Joe McHugh, Ireland’s Minister for Education and Skills, arrived in the UAE earlier today at the beginning of a two-day fact-finding mission during which he will engage with Irish teachers working in the United Arab Emirates, an embassy statement said.

Two town hall meetings are planned with Irish teachers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to gather their views on teaching abroad.

A key part of the trip will be a meeting with Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Minister of Education, to discuss links between the Irish and UAE education systems and methods of deepening relations.

In Abu Dhabi, McHugh is due to visit Brighton College, where he will meet Irish teachers, and Khalifa University. In Dubai, he will visit the local Choueifat School. He will also visit the campus of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Dubai, which offers postgraduate education, training and consultancy in leadership, management, patient safety and quality.

"This is a great opportunity to see first-hand the education links between Ireland and the UAE and to see how we can build on these as well as seeing for myself the work of our highly-regarded teachers in the classrooms in the Gulf region," the Minister said.

Ahead of the visit, the Irish embassy in the UAE carried out an online survey last month of teachers working in the Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf. A total of 1,002 Irish teachers in the UAE responded to the survey.

Salary, pay inequality, housing and lack of permanent positions were cited as some of the main reasons for teachers leaving Ireland, although more than half said that they were definitely planning to return. 10 percent said that they would not, with the remainder being undecided.

59 percent of respondents had been living in the Gulf for less than three years, with another 25 percent for between three and five years. More than two thirds of respondents were female and more than three quarters were aged 25 to 34.

"This work has provided an invaluable opportunity to better understand some of the key issues for our teachers if and when they consider a return to Ireland," McHugh said.

"There are more than 2,000 Irish people working in education on the UAE. They are a huge asset to the schools and the education system in the region and they are phenomenal ambassadors for our country.

"This trip is part of a learning process. We are not in the UAE to recruit teachers or convince anyone to come home. It is about trying to see what practical measures can be taken for teachers who have made a decision to return home and whether that journey can be made easier for them."

The Minister also expressed his condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Irish teacher Fiona Geraghty, who died in a road accident in Dubai on 6th June. From Balbriggan in Dublin, late last week, Geraghty taught as Dubai’s school of Research Science.