The Saudi education system has been notorious for producing poorly- and narrowly-educated graduates. Those graduates are strong in religious theory but utterly lacking in the knowledge and skills they need to deal with the real world around them. Now, after years of preparation, the Ministry of Education, through the efforts of the King Abdullah Project for General Education Development, will be introducing major reforms, and not a moment too soon.
Notably, this reform will include retraining teachers already employed by the Ministry. This will introduce problems of its own, of course, as dictatorial teachers will be forced to learn that they are not the font of all knowledge. That will be a tough proposition for them to confront. The reforms will also lead to some difficulties at home when ‘Question Authority’ comes to be expected from young Saudis.
Dramatic changes expected in education system, says official
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab NewsJEDDAH: The King Abdullah Project for General Education Development (Tatwir) will bring about dramatic changes in the Kingdom’s education system, said Naif Al-Roumi, deputy education minister for planning and development and director general of the project.
“We have started implementing some programs under the project on an experimental basis,” Al-Roumi told Al-Riyadh Arabic daily. “Our plan is to develop the Kingdom’s education system making use of the successful experiments in other countries, such as the United States, South Korea, Singapore and Finland,” he said.
The government has allocated SR9 billion for the project, which is named after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah who wants to introduce drastic reforms in the country’s education system, matching with advanced countries. The current national budget has set aside SR120 billion for education and training.
Al-Roumi emphasized the importance of providing intensive training to teachers to help them cope with new educational developments. More than 400,000 teachers will be trained in school management, educational supervision, computer science and self-development skills. “We have introduced the new science and technology program in 110 schools. Next year it will be applied in all schools,” he said.
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January:14:2009 - 15:25
The most important changes that should be implemented are:
1) The provision of numeracy skills,
2) The development of critical analytical thinking skills;
3) The development of quality writing skills.
Too many young people (among relatives and similar sets) do seem to lack the ability to do these things.
A grounding in our history would be useful as well, including the portions of Arab history that are much less covered.
January:14:2009 - 16:32
I’d suggest that those three areas could be improved in all schools, in all countries. I see far too much knee-jerk reaction to what appear to be ‘magic words’. Just utter them and you can raise masses (or at least mobs) to take to the streets, protest, write angry letter, set up blogs…
Risk analysis, the scientific method, questioning sources… we all need to do more of it. I’d like remedial education for the politician who run all countries, including my own.
Oh, I nearly forgot: honesty, too!