After graduating from the university, some of us will choose to stay home.

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1 Amani The Private Sector Versus The Public Sector. After graduating from the university, some of us will choose to stay home. Others might complete their studies, but I expect that most of us will choose to work. As we know, the U.A.E is one of the countries which provides two areas for people to work in. One of them is called the private sector and the other one is the public sector. According to the Online Dictionary of Social Science, the public sector is that part of the economy which is owned or controlled by the public, usually through government agencies. Most schooling is part of the public sector as are hospitals, provision of social services, and some transit services. The more substantial portion of the economy consists of the private sector, those economic activities controlled or owned by private individuals, either directly or through stock ownership. " 1. In this essay, I will compare and contrast between the private and the public sector because I want to know which one to choose after I graduate from the university. How much salary is given by each sector? This is the first question that almost every one will ask when searching for a job. The salary in the public sector is much higher than the salary in the private sector. I asked six of my relatives who are teachers about their salaries. All of them said that they get approximately ten thousand dirhams per month. On the other hand, I read the application form of my father who is a private employee at The R.A.K Port; I found that his salary is just four thousand dirhams per month 2. Moreover, the government raises the salary on some occasions for workers in the public sector for example; the national day of the U.A.E is a great occasion for people who live in the U.A.E. Last week on 21 November 2007, I heard

2 on Sama Dubai Channel that the government gave salary raises of 70% for employees in the public sector 3. By contrast, most of the private companies do not raise the salaries in such occasions. Mrs. Ebrahim Mohammed Daood a journalist in Al Eqtisadiah Newspaper, said that the salaries of the employees in the private sector depend on their achievements. The more they achieve in their work, the higher salary they can get. He added that the worker in the public sector waits until the end of the month comes to get his/her salary. The worker in the private sector will be upset if he does not achieve his work because his salary depends on his achievement in the job 4. I think that the engineer is an example of this case. If he doesn't finish the first step of building after the limited period, he will not be able to take the salary until he finishes that building. In addition, I found in Al Bayan Newspaper in 2006 that H.H Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoom decided to give about 3,000 stocks from one of Etisalat companies only to the national teachers who work in public schools, universities and institutions. In addition, this gift does not include the national workers in the private schools or universities 5. I think that the salary plays an important role and that's why most of the female students who graduate from the U.A.E University want to work in the public schools. This means that they have to wait for several years after graduating to get a job in the public schools. Moving to the holidays, the private sector gives fewer holidays than the public sector. We can support this idea with many examples. The most common example is the weekend. The weekend for the private sector is only Friday. I read in my father's application form that the worker must be on duty from Saturday until Thursday. Also, he should work from 8 a.m. till 4:30p.m. Furthermore, he will have a vacation for only one month annually. On the other hand, my sister who is a teacher in one of the public schools works from 8 a.m. till 2 p.m. every day. Her weekend is

3 Friday and Saturday. Also she has a vacation from teaching for three months yearly. I discovered another example in Al Khaleej Times Online News (17 January 2005).The public sector will be closed for five days for Eid Al Adha holiday,but the private sector will enjoy only three days from this Eid holiday 6. In my opinion, the public sector authorities want to keep the family together in such occasions. They also try to make a good relationship between the members of the family. However, I believe that every minute in the private sector is valuable. Missing one day means missing thousands of dirhams. I think that the profits of private companies depend on the numbers of working hours. If I were an administrator of Julphar Factory, I wouldn't give my employers two days for weekend. I would only give them one day. The reason is that my factory might produces 1000 bottles of medicines every day so the profits might be about 50,000 dirham every day. Most of the workers in the U.A.E who are national workers prefer to work in the public sector because it grants them many privileges. According to the reports from Private Institution of Health and Medical Services in Dubai, the percentage of Asian workers in this private institution is 64.8%, but the percentage of the U.A.E national workers is only 9.8% 7. D.r Abdulla Ismail who is a member in the College of Engineering at U.A.E. University pointed out that Engineering sector has a bright future in the U.A.E., but most of the students who are from the U.A.E do not tend to choose scientific majors: we see most of them in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and hat will make a big problem which is decreasing the percentage of U.A.E national workers in the Private Engineering Sector 8. Beside that Mrs. Mohammed Daood said that, the privileges which are granted to the workers in the public sector have very big effects on their skills and abilities. They do

4 not work hard; they only sit in their government offices and drink tea or coffee. Some of them read newspapers and sleep on their desks. Also, most of them get excused from their work because they want to get their children back from the schools 4. I feel that Mrs. Daood maybe wrong because people are different in their morality. Neither private nor public sector will change the faith of the moral employee toward his job. At the same time, most people do not think about doing their jobs perfectly as much as they think about the salary in both sectors. Beside the salary, we can enjoy our work and be creative in it. Both sectors encourage their employees to get experience by training. As I found at Etisalat website," This Corporation developed an integrated training program in an endeavor to enhance University, College graduates, holders of Diploma and College of Technology Certificates of all specializations so that they would equip them with the academic and professional skills" 10. Also, my sister is a teacher in a public school. The administration of her school encourages the teachers to participate in workshops to improve their skills. Almost every month she attends a workshop and she said that she gets a lot of benefits. As I see, the workshops help the workers to gain more practical skills and give them more experiences. Also, attending workshops will help them expand their thinking and think in creative and critical ways. In conclusion, we saw that the public sector provides more facilities than the private sector. The public sector gives higher salaries and gives better vacations than the private sector. Also, most of the national workers from the U.A.E choose the public sector. Both of the sectors provide and encourage their workers to train themselves and improve their skills. I think that in the future, when I am a teacher, I will apply to work in the public and the private schools. If they accept me in private

5 school, I will work with them. I do not think that I will wait until the public schools accept me to work with them because I will have to wait for several years to get a job. I think that working is to get experiences and practice what you have been studied in practical ways. Recourses: 1- Online Dictionary of the Social Science at ( ) in The application form of R.A.K Port. 3- The news of Sama Dubai Channel at 8:30 o'clock in the evening in 21/11/ Mohammed, Daood at ( ) in Al Bayan News paper in Al Khaleej Times Online News (17 January 2005) at ( euae/2005/january/theuae_january489.xmlin) in in Abdulla, Ismail at ( in