H ow are Egypt’s private + international schools managing to retain expat teachers? The process of recruiting — and then retaining — expat teachers has become something of an ordeal over the past several months as a result of both the ongoing FX crunch and devaluation. Schools have been struggling to mitigate the effects of the EGP devaluation this year and are bracing for potential further weakening of the currency in the near term, several school officials told Enterprise. Given that private international schools compensate expat teachers using a blend of FX and local currency, schools have been reconsidering the intricacies and potential consequences of this compensation structure.

Going local: In an attempt to tackle the difficulties brought by the present financial constraints, several schools are currently considering both “local international” hires — ie foreigners already residing in Egypt — and local hires for their staffing requirements. Schools are pouring in more money into the development of local hires and the development of their accreditation to maintain their quality standards. Schools have also increased teacher salaries this year—giving Egyptian teachers priority.

Some private + international schools are feeling the pinch more than others: While some schools exclusively hire expats, others have a combination of locally hired staff and expats, and others generally staff only a few expats. Those who are experiencing the highest turnover rate in expats are the third category because they’re unable to offer attractive packages in hard currency, El Alsson Executive Director Karim Rogers told Enterprise.

Schools that have a combination of foreign and local hires have been feeling the hit as well: Schools should ideally maintain a staff requirement of 20% consisting of foreign hires, but the weakening currency has made it difficult to do so. “No international school reached the quota this year,” Rogers tells us. International schools opt for foreign teachers because international certification requirements obligate them to hire a certain number of foreign teachers every year and failing to do so could put these schools’ certifications in jeopardy, CIRA Education CEO Mohamed El Kalla previously told us.

Some expats found themselves getting paid less: At many international schools, foreign teachers have their salaries set in foreign currency, with a portion paid out in FX and the rest in EGP equivalent. After the EGP devaluation, some expats found themselves receiving reduced salaries due to the terms of their contracts. “When I accepted the offer, I hadn’t realized how much I would have been affected by the currency drop because I was originally being paid in EGP and 75% of it would be converted to GBP and I would keep 25% as EGP,” according to a former English teacher at an International school, who relocated to Saudi Arabia due to the devaluation.

Recruitment this year was especially difficult with more expats opting for other markets: Although contracts are finalized now that the academic year is underway, some expats opted to exit Egypt at the end of the last academic year as they were uncomfortable with the current conditions. “After the school year, some expats decided to explore jobs in the Asian, South American, Saudi, and UAE markets, opting to avoid European and American markets because they’re also going through their own cost of living crisis,” said Rogers. Chinese schools attracted significant talent at teacher recruitment fairs earlier this year due to their offer of salaries that Egyptian international schools simply couldn’t match, Sherine Galal, chairman of the Consultancy Group for International Education, told Enterprise.

And there’s a problem with the caliber we’re left with: Given the FX crunch, it is becoming increasingly expensive to hire expats of very high credentials, our sources agreed. “A lot of schools can’t afford to hire the higher calibers of foreign expats, who demand higher salaries in USD, which severely impacts learning at the end of the day,” Galal tells us. Some schools’ decision to hire expatriates with lower qualifications can lead to a decrease in the overall teaching quality, she said.

Old habits die hard: Schools who want to maintain their reputation would try “making a balance of hiring expats, certified local foreign hires, and internationally certified local teachers, is the solution for such an impediment. In doing so, schools would be able to spend the extra fees on technology, educational resources, and professional development for local teachers,” said Galal.

Altogether, schools are getting more creative in where to direct their FX resources: Some are opting to channel their FX towards expats in administrative roles, such as principals or academic coordinators, who are then responsible for recruiting and training local teachers. Other institutions chose to invest in expats who teach base years to maintain the quality of foundation years. Meanwhile, some are opting for more “local foreign” hires — which are less expensive than hiring foreigners from abroad — and then financing their accreditation or helping them get certified abroad, Galal told us. “This year there was a war of who could attract more from the local market,” Rogers told us.

What have schools done to retain teachers? There was a typical salary increase of 15-20% but “we increased the salaries of the Egyptians more than the expats because they were severely affected by the devaluation, and we had to show them our appreciation given that they’re the backbone of our school,” Rogers tells us.

The upshot: The tides are shifting in favor of the local market: As more and more expats have been leaving Egypt since the pandemic hit and the FX crisis has worsened, the realization gradually dawned that there is “significant potential in highly educated and proficient Egyptian teachers readily available locally and open to employment at much cheaper rates,” an anonymous source from SABIS told us. There’s a current “youthfulization of schools,” with many schools showing a growing inclination to hire highly qualified local Egyptians, a significant portion of whom hold a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education), our source said. This has led teachers to invest in their own professional development, according to our SABIS source.

Your top education stories for the week:

  • Egypt x UNESCO: The cabinet approved Egypt's participation in an amended UNESCO agreement focused on recognizing higher education qualifications in Arab countries.
  • EdMin welcomes new teachers: Those who have passed the “30k teachers” competition will be joining work in the coming days. (Education Ministry statement)
  • A national dialogue conference for education: The Education Ministry plans to launch a national dialogue conference to discuss the development of the public secondary education system. (Education Ministry statement)
  • UK trade envoy to Egypt in town to promote collaboration in higher education: UK Trade Envoy to Egypt Jeffrey Donaldson and representatives from 10 British universities met with PM Madbouly to discuss furthering educational partnerships between the two countries. (Cabinet | British Embassy Cairo, pdf) .
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