RIYADH, 10 May — A random Arab News survey of Saudi students studying at various levels in the education system has revealed that most of them do not know the number of planets in our solar system, or their names.
The majority also admitted they were unaware of the existence of any heavenly bodies, except the moon and the sun. The vast majority, moreover, have never received any education on the existence of pre-historic creatures; nor have they received any lessons on computer science or the Internet, meaning they were left to learn it by trial and error.
A number of them claim that they are being given computer classes, but they learn from manuals on DOS that date from the 1970s.
And in contrast to students in most other countries, who regularly enjoy art classes, few Saudi students here in the Kingdom are encouraged to bring out their creative talents. There is a “drawing class”, in which students can paint or draw — as long as they sit in a separate classroom!
All the interviewed students agreed that the Saudi education is based on “memorization”.
Students are taught as though they were parrots: the teacher just keeps repeating something until it sticks, and then the student regurgitates it, word for word, during examinations.
Physical education is banned in all girls’ schools. No clear explanation has been given for why this is so. The Shoura Council has not discussed the issue, but several leading Saudi intellectuals have objected to this as clearly discriminatory. Sometimes the debate spills over into the Saudi Arabic dailies, but the bottom line is that the idea of girls practicing any kind of sports in schools, as boys are allowed to, is considered unacceptable to certain influential figures who claim to represent the Saudi public.
Nada Tashkandi, 12, is in the seventh grade at a girls’ school in Riyadh.
She received her elementary education in the United States when she lived there with her parents. Asked about the main difference between the education systems here and there, she said: “Everything here takes place in the classroom. There aren’t any field trips.”
She added: “We also progressed faster there. Fourth grade there is like sixth grade here.”
Asked about why girls never went on field trips or to visit science or other museums, the reply was short and to the point: “There is a difference between America and here!”
Maha, 15, who is in a private high school in Riyadh, said that there have been no changes to the girls’ curriculum in decades.
“They renewed the text books for boys, but I study the same text books that my older sisters studied, even though they are now married. The only difference is that they have changed the cover!”
Al-Jawani also talked of the special treatment some students receive because their parents have “wasta” (influence).
“Certain students only turn up once a week, and still they get high marks,” she claimed.
Her teachers, she continued, lack the ability or motivation to teach in a way that makes learning fun. Even in her own private school, teachers overlook the fact that their students have different academic abilities and so learn in different ways and at different paces.
“When I was a kid, my teacher used to make me write four to five pages a day - but I had only just learned how to write! I’m still writing the same amount now,” she said.
Maha’s remarks support a frequent lament: our education system needs a radical overhaul that will take account not only of an outdated curriculum, but also sterile teaching methods that contribute so little to the creative learning process.
Arab News spoke to one Saudi teacher in the public school system who is married to a German woman. So little faith does he have in the Kingdom’s schools that he insisted on sending his own son to an international school. Usually, this is illegal, but he threatened the authorities that he would give his German wife permission to leave the country with his son unless they conceded to his demand.
“In the end, they gave us permission,” he said. “How could I give my son such a bad education if I have another choice?” he asked.
The recent fire in a girls’ school in Makkah, in which 15 girls died, has put a spotlight on the rented buildings from which most girls’ schools operate. But the problem with the education system’s infrastructure does not begin and end there. Not one Saudi public elementary school has a playground, for example, and children have been seen playing soccer on the roofs of rented school buildings because there is no soccer pitch or playground which they can use during their breaks.
Saudi educators need to teach themselves a long, hard lesson, that has as it main point this: educating young people means creating a school curriculum geared around children’s intellectual, creative, physical and psychological requirements, as well as the future needs of the Saudi economy.
Students are presently being shuttled off to school with their bags full of as much a 5 kilos of textbooks as though they were human data machines. They go to school only to have their minds stuffed with information which they throw up during the intense examination period. Is that really all education should amount to?
