Back to school: Students aim to scale new heights

An estimated 5.6 million boys and girls will go to school in the Kingdom when schools reopen after the summer and Ramadan vacations on Sunday.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Rashed Al-Ghayad, undersecretary for planning and development at the Ministry of Education, said: “There are 2,718,762 male students and 2,834,796 females. There are 182,556 students at the nursery level and 2.57 million in primary schools. There are 1.23 million students in intermediate schools and there are 1.21 million at the secondary level.”
He said 24,751 pupils will attend special schools and that 51,903 more will attend the adult education classes.
Al-Ghayad put the number of total teachers at 245,842 men and 300,750 women, teaching in 16,039 boys’ schools and 18,710 girls’ schools.
These numbers do not include 2,241 men and 3,568 women unversity graduates whose recruitment formalities for teaching are being processed.
He said the ministry had completed all preparations to ensure smooth teaching and other activities at all schools on the orders of Education Minister Prince Khaled Al-Faisal.
There is a central committee with representation from all education departments which will follow up the activities and coordinate with the committees that are tasked with the preparation for the new scholastic year, he said.
Al-Ghayad said most of the schools had been equipped to impart e-education with high-tech facilities. General education books have been printed in sufficient numbers.
“Schools follow international standards, especially in mathematics, English language and computer system,” he said.
He said the ministry had also supplied a syllabus to provincial education directorates for distribution in all schools, including special schools in addition to books in Braille for visually impaired students.