Saudi teacher under investigation for telling students they'll never find jobs

On Monday, a video emerged of a Saudi teacher telling a class of young students that they will never find work, regardless of whether they study hard or not. 

Naturally, it sent people into a social media meltdown of the sorts... 

In the 11-second footage, the man, who is said to be a young teacher, is heard making the statement and ending the video with: 

"If you want to suspend me, go ahead, do it."

Soon after the video sparked online controversy, the kingdom's Ministry of Education announced that it's now investigating the matter. 

In an official statement, a ministry spokesman said officials believe the man in the video might not even be an educator. They're now working on identifying when and where the incident took place. 

The footage continues to make the rounds online and has also opened up debate about unemployment in Saudi Arabia. 

While many tweeps were completely against the statement made by the man in the video, especially given the fact that he was talking to young students, others thought he was simply stating the truth.

"He might not even be an educator, we all remember incidents when people or students entered classrooms and filmed videos before teachers were in class. Regardless of who did this, I hope he is held accountable." 

"The amount of negative energy in this trend!!"

"What he said is true, there are no job opportunities open to our youth and statistics confirm that 500,000 university graduates are currently unemployed." 

"Why are people upset over the truth?"

"I wish the Ministry of Education would investigate mistakes made by important figures and the minister himself rather than focus on this. Their decisions negatively impacted our education system as a whole."

According to the most recent statistics, Saudi Arabia's unemployment rate rose to 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017, a 1 percent rise from 2016.

The steady increase in unemployment in the past few years led the kingdom's government to focus on creating more jobs for nationals. 

Under its Vision 2030, an ambitious blueprint which aims to diversify the country's economy, the kingdom has been implementing several initiatives aimed at solving the problem. 

While the issue is subject to wide debate in the country, unemployment isn't just a major concern for Saudi's but is also a problem faced by millions across the Arab world. 

Earlier this year, the Arab Youth Survey, an annual study conducted across the Arab world, revealed that unemployability is a top concern for young people in the region. 

It's also seen as a factor that majorly holds young people back.