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Teacher asked to return Dh100,000 allowance

AL AIN — The Al Ain Educational Zone (AAEZ) has asked an Arabic language teacher at a school in the area to return Dh100,000 to AAEZ as she had been receiving more housing allowance than she was actually entitled to.

As per the Ministry of Education (MoE) rules, a woman teacher can get only 60 per cent of her housing allowance if her husband works in the government sector, and is entitled to only 40 per cent of the housing allowance if the husband is a private sector employee. The teacher has been taking 60 per cent of her housing allowance despite her husband having switched his job to the private sector since 1993.

The Arabic language teacher, however, said she had notified the AAEZ when her husband joined a private sector job after he was terminated from his government job in 1993.

“It’s not my fault. It’s the responsibility of the employee at the Financial Affairs Department of the AAEZ who changed my housing allowance to 40 per cent for five months, and then reverted it back to 60 per cent since then,” she alleged.

Meanwhile, she has appealed to the Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, to intervene in the matter. However, when contacted, AAEZ Director Nabil Salih Al Dhahry said that the Arabic language teacher had committed a mistake by failing to inform the AAEZ that her housing allowance had been changed to 60 per cent.

He said that the AAEZ had notified the MoE that the teacher’s husband had changed job to the private sector and therefore, she was entitled to ony 40 per cent of her housing allowance.

The official noted that the AAEZ was not authorised to deduct part of a teacher’s salary as the zone is an administrative unit and its responsibility entails supplying the MoE with the teachers’ official papers and certificates.