i sent the following tweet, and it had more than 206,000 readers, as of the moment of writing the article:
“i was shocked as soon as i learned that the number of workers in the qur’an houses is 35,000, as stated by mp muhammad al huwaila.”
it was later found out that the above-mentioned number was exaggerated by al huwaila, however, i found out that the issue at the holy quran centers exceeds the number of workers because of loose administration and financial squandering in most centers.
for instance, according to a friend of mine, al faiha quran center has a manager, 18 teachers, and 12 administrative workers. this number is not so big but the issue becomes astonishing and confusing when we know that the number of registered students is much less.
the situation is different in the quran centers allocated for women where the number of teachers and administrative workers multiplies as well as the number of students. the reason is that registered students, kuwaitis, and non-kuwaitis, obtain incentives from quran centers despite the fact that the certificates issued by quran centers are not considered by any public institutions. they only prove that the holder has memorized the holy quran. moreover, a large part of the teachers and workers at quran centers came by waste either to buy the loyalty of some lawmakers, silence the opposition or award the loyal lawmakers.
social researchers concerned about the violations at quran centers said the crammed number of teachers and administrative workers at quran centers is too excessive, particularly at the centers allocated for women because of the fact that the working hours are too short, ranging from one and a half to 2 hours per day.
sources added that the amount of work is too little, the centers close during spring and summer vacations just like schools, for almost 4 months with a full salary which is as high as that obtained by engineers who graduated from the usa and work for 8 hours in outdoor sites.
quran centers organize three courses per year; winter course, spring course, and summer course followed by distributing cash incentives to students and 3 months of summer vacation. quran centers are located in khaitan, andalus, abdullah mubarak, sabah al nasser, mubarak al kabeer, al qusour, hawally, and other areas and the total is almost 44. there is no orderly work at those centers, especially at the centers allocated for men where some workers do not come to work covered by their colleagues while they enjoy their time in basra.
if i were in charge, i would conduct a questionnaire and ask the workers to choose either to stay in the office for a full-time job or to stay home with a full salary. upon the results of the questionnaire, i would take the adequate decision, either to keep the centers open in case most of the workers chose to come to the office for a full-time job. in case most workers chose to stay at home, i will keep only the needed number of centers open and close the rest of them.
this decision may be much better in terms of morals and administration as well as preserving the feelings and spirits of the rest of the office workers at the different public institutions. the holy quran was not in need of those centers for almost 14 centuries. quran will continue forever without those centers.
footnote: the issue of a crammed number of employees in the administrative public sector overall is a devastating factor on both moral and spiritual grounds that require to be addressed. this is going to be the topic of my upcoming article.