Yemen: Teachers take other careers and volunteers replace them

Al Jazeera Net - Special

Life in Yemen has not been harsher than it has been for teachers. For the past four years, they have struggled between securing a living and the sanctity of their profession after their salaries have been cut.

Since August 2016, more than one million Yemeni employees working in the administrative sectors of the capital Sana'a and areas under Houthi control have been living without salaries, including 242,000 teachers, according to a report by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.

Twenty-eight percent of teachers reside in government-controlled areas and receive regular salaries, and 72 percent of teachers in the Houthi-controlled provinces have not received their salaries.

The salary of the teacher ranges between 60 and 80 thousand riyals (equivalent to 100 and 130 US dollars), including incentives and bonuses, an amount that does not meet the minimum requirements of life, the average rent of the house starts from 40 thousand riyals (66 dollars).

The war has caused a complete collapse of the education system, putting the future of hundreds of thousands of children at stake, an entire generation threatened by illiteracy.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2 million children are still out of school, including nearly half a million who have dropped out of school since the conflict escalated in March 2015, and the education of 3.7 million children is at stake, with teachers not being paid.

Other areas
Teachers turned to other professions to earn a daily income after desperate to ask the Houthis to pay their salaries.

Before that, they tried to impose a new reality to face the crisis, and repeatedly stripped of education before the Houthis ignored their demands, and their demands and protests were sometimes met with the threat of dismissal from public office.

In his small shop north of Sanaa, Faisal Mohammed, a former science professor, is confused. He tries to record commodity prices. He is new to the trade profession and has no experience in an unstable market with currency fluctuations.

Arguing for war
Faisal told Al Jazeera Net that he had to give up his profession in education, and reopened a shop selling food, adding, "I was patient one year and another, and I could see poverty in the eyes of my children, which led me to look for another job."

"We have repeatedly tried to pressure the government to hand over half of our salaries, but every time they refuse the war and the blockade imposed by Yemen and Saudi Arabia on the Yemenis."

Hundreds of teachers followed Faisal's example, and in al-Asbahi market south of Sanaa, Arabic professor Abdullah al-Shamiri was forced to work as a realtor in the real estate market.

"I am tired of religion and people have begged me to lend me," he said.

Saudi - Emirati Scholarship
Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced at the end of last year a grant to teachers, but the grant was signed only in May, and the grant was spent on courses, most recently in July.

According to a statement by UNICEF spokesperson Kamal al-Wazir to Al Jazeera Net, the organization distributed the financial grant to 127 thousand teachers, at $ 50 per teacher.

The financial grant from the two countries waging war in Yemen is almost the only one for teachers, but it certainly does not represent any significant value to teachers.

Despite the hardships, the largest number of teachers in Yemen - especially women - are still clinging to the teaching profession.

Residents in villages and towns have set up funds to provide teachers with symbolic sums to ensure continuity of education, while other high school graduates have been teaching, including Munir Massaad, who has been working as a blacksmith for 25 years, and recently joined a first-grade teacher at al-Nahda school in Dhamar, central Yemen.

New teachers
Journalist Salman al-Humaidi was one of those who led community initiatives in his village and became one of the new teachers.

Al-Jazeera Net says that poor educational outcomes have led him and others to adopt a voluntary initiative to focus on education.

"We did an initial activity to teach students to fight illiteracy in schools, which was greatly multiplied by war, and thankfully we succeeded greatly."

The team developed a one-year plan, but unfortunately it received no support.

The new IDPs were another addition to education, and despite their efforts they remain limited to formal education, making a whole generation illiterate.