Weakness
Ali Al-Mousa, Al-Watan

A few days ago the conference to improve education ended at King Abdul Aziz University. A number of recommendations were made; many of them have been made many times in the past and never implemented. Now they have been made yet again.

One of the most obvious statements was from the minister who announced that our system of education is in need of many changes. Surely we do not need to have an official ministerial announcement in order to realize the truth.

Our children are once again back in school. My son, in the 7th Grade, is among them. On Friday before school started on Saturday, I watched him as he checked his schedule and I listened to him tell me what he was studying.

Our students attend classes for five days per week, studying seven subjects every day. That gives them 35 academic classes per week. Four mathematics classes, four science classes but only one computer course which is there just to fill up some free time.

The result is just nine classes in much needed subjects out of a total of 35 per week. We can only wonder what is taught in the remaining time. If this is the case, what is surprising about the poor state of education in our country?

The problem is that many people talk but nobody actually takes any action beyond producing documents, attending symposiums and sponsoring conferences.

Another good op-ed from the Arabic daily Al-Watan. Here, the writer is banging the drum for reform in education. This, again, is a parent who is disgusted with the kind of education his kids are getting. He’s not coming out saying, “too much religion”, but that’s exactly what he’s leaving out of the article, very pointedly.

He’s pitching a utilitarian gripe: kids aren’t getting enough of what they need in school, an education. But since school hours are fixed, adding new–and more useful–materials means that less useful materials must be dropped. By means of simple subtraction, that means less religion.

Arab culture does not prefer to use direct confrontation as a means of resolving problems. As this article shows, though, indirection can be effective as well.