JEDDAH: With the conclusion of final exams and the ushering in of the summer holiday for millions of students across the Kingdom not everyone is feeling the joy of the occasion.
Teachers in both private and public schools who have to stay behind for three weeks after students have been sent away are venting their frustration at the mandatory wait. The reason for the extension is to give students who failed final exams an opportunity to resit them before the start of the new school year.
“My two small children have been out of school for nearly a month now and I have had to drastically adjust their sleeping schedule in order to leave them at home and report to my job at school each day,” said Um Raouf, an Islamic Studies teacher.
Um Abdullatif agreed saying that she has already reserved her tickets for her family to travel abroad for the holiday but has to wait the additional three weeks to travel.
“I know the Ministry of Education has allowed us this time to check exam papers and prepare the results, but I don’t think it will take this long as the students are scheduled to receive their results this week,” she said. “Not all teachers have students who need to resit exams, but are nevertheless required to stay the extra three weeks.”
Others feel that teachers who put in extra effort to make sure that the students understood the course material and were prepared for the exams shouldn’t be made to stay behind. “I feel that we should be commended for our hard work by being released on holiday early,” said Manal K., a history teacher at a private school in Jeddah.
Other instructors think that the Ministry of Education’s decision is beneficial for both them and the students who retake the tests. “At our school we were told that as the holy month of Ramadan falls during the summer break it would be better to hold exams early rather than wait until the two weeks prior to the start of the new school year,” said a teacher, who wanted to remain anonymous.
She also said that it is better for students to retake exams while the material is still fresh in their minds rather than after two months when they would be more likley to fail a second time.
