Manama: School principals in Saudi Arabia who allow their teachers to not report to work before the start of the official summer holidays could be sacked.

With the students no longer attending classes after they sat for their final exams, teachers have no classes or duties, and some of them tend not to show up at schools and they start the summer vacation before the official date of June 10.

However, an education ministry source warned that school principals do not have the right to allow their teachers to go on holidays and must make sure that they report to work, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Wednesday.

“The only days off that school principals can give to teachers are related to death of the father or mother, a son, a daughter, a wife, a brother or a sister,” the source said. “There are also extra days off in the cases of birth in the family. Otherwise, principals cannot allow teachers not to report to work.”

Teams from the ministry will be making unannounced visits to schools to check the teachers’ attendance records and monitor the situations, the source added.

The education ministry had decided that the last day of work for teachers in the more than 34,000 schools would be June 9 and that the summer holidays would start on June 10.

However, several teachers said that the holidays should start on June 3, ahead of the month of Ramadan during which all physically able Muslims are expected to fast.

The teachers also said that going to schools when there are no students meant sitting idle and doing nothing, which amounted to a waste of time. They said that they had to put up with the stress and pressure of driving or being driven long distances to reach their schools just to sign the attendance registers.

“We would understand if it were the beginning of the new academic year and we teachers and other staff had to prepare ourselves and the school to welcome the students back,” one teacher said. “But at the end of the year when there is nothing, our presence for the sake of just showing up raises questions.”

Several teachers who are away from their families urged the education minister to reconsider the start of the summer holidays and bring the date forward “in order to enable us to start the holy month of Ramadan with our children and families”.