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How about a fair deal for teachers?

However, this is a statement many people argue against.

The disparity in teachers' pay in the UAE has long been a point of contention here. Ask anyone, and the sentiment in pay scales will be the same: Westerners always get more. Coming from a social point of view, what is more important: Good knowledge of a subject or proficiency of nationality and pronunciation? If teacher pay trends are anything to go by, it would seem the latter has more impact when it comes to determining the amount of figures on ones pay cheque here. Many say this system is based on the standard of living in the home country of the employee. In other words, what can that money buy the employee back home and what is its value in each country. When you look at it in that way, you could say teacher salaries are equal across the board, as the tax-free living in the UAE means we're all earning at least double, if not thrice that of what we would be earning back home. But residing in a country where living costs are rising by the day, what good is such a calculation? Salaries should not be calculated on the basis of habits of people, but on the work that they do. That brings mean to our next point. The colour of ones passport seems to be the determining factor in ones salary, but what goes hand in hand with this is the consensus that the quality of Western education outweighs its Asian counterpart.
However, this is a statement many people argue against. These people are not less qualified, nor are they less willing to work than their western colleagues, so this is a mindset that needs to change. There is no doubt the education sector in Dubai has been gaining momentum over the past few years. With this, the quality in teaching standards has also grown. But of the 15 new privates schools that came up in Dubai this year, 10 are following the UK curriculum. As such, this demand in UK curriculum schools and teachers is what is setting the standard for this disparity in pay. But that is not reason enough to see differences of Dh10,000-Dh15,000 in wage packets. Many are questioning the education authorities role in the matter here too. If they regulate schools, teaching methods, and the welfare of students, why not regulate teachers pay? Nationality should not be the criteria for pay.