Thursday, Aug 29, 2013
Manama: For the first time in four decades, Thursday is a full working day for around 500,000 teachers in Saudi Arabia.
Students and teachers used to have their two-day weekend on Thursday and Friday, but following the decision announced in June to switch the weekly break in the Saudi kingdom, the public sector is now off on Friday and Saturday.
With the reopening of schools this week, teachers are going through their first Sunday-Thursday week.
“We do welcome the change because it has aligned us with other teachers and public sector employees in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries,” Saad Al Enezi, a teacher, said, quoted by local daily Al Watan. Saudi Arabia was the last of the six GCC countries that also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to switch to the Friday-Saturday weekend.
“The change made Friday a day of meeting relatives and friends instead of staying at home or saying farewells to them at the end of the weekend,” Radhi Al Shimmari, another teacher, said.
However, Khalid Satmi said that the switch would not affect teachers or schools.
“The change is not going to be felt by the teaching or administrative staff since all government institutions have reorganised themselves according to the new weekend,” the teacher said.
“I expect that students will have some trouble accepting the change, though, as they are used to being off on Thursday. It might take them some time to adjust their habits,” he said.
In neighbouring Bahrain, several people said that they were pleased with the weekend switch in Saudi Arabia. The two kingdoms are linked by the 25-kilometre long King Fahad Causeway used by thousands of people from both countries every day, and particularly on weekends.
“Our restaurant now serves many more Saudis or visitors from Saudi Arabia on Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday,” Ramzi, a restaurateur, said. “In the past, very few were with us on Saturday, but now many come and stay late into the evening because they enjoy the atmosphere, but also because they want the usually heavy traffic on the causeway to ease before they hit the road,” he said.
Anas, a student with many friends in the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia, said that the switch enabled him to see them over two days. “It used to be only on Friday as that the common day off between us,” he said. “But now, we have the same two days and this has made it much more flexible for us to meet, be it in Bahrain or in Saudi Arabia. The only issue is to select a timing that makes you avoid the long queues that form at the borders,” he said.
Bahraini and Saudi authorities have pledged to improve the traffic flow on the terrestrial link following complaints that the procedures were slow or that not enough officers were appointed to help with the processing of travel documents.
Bahrainis and Saudis need only to show their identity cars to be allowed into the other country.
By Habib Toumi Bureau Chief
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
