DAMMAM, 1 August — The Ministry of Education has punished four expatriate international schools for flouting the ministry’s instructions with warning of final closure if the violations are repeated. The punishment involved a fine of SR54,000 on each of the four schools.
Issuing the orders on these deterrent steps, Education Minister Muhammad Al-Rasheed said that it was the final warning to the four schools. If they fail to correct the mistakes before the beginning of the new academic their licenses will be canceled and they will be closed for good, Al-Rasheed said.
Three of the four international schools are in Riyadh, Yanbu and Al-Ahsa, according to a ministry source. The school in Yanbu was found teaching Indian and Pakistani syllabi while it was licensed only to teach British syllabus. The school is functioning in an dilapidated building without proper furnishing, equipment or safety measures. It ignored the repeated orders of the educational directorate in Yanbu to rectify the situation.
A supervisor of the educational directorate will inspect the school on a daily basis to see if corrective measures taken by the management are satisfactory and will report his findings to the ministry for further action.
The school in Al-Ahsa is operating illegally as its temporary license has expired. It is housed in a dilapidated building and has not made any effort to maintain the standards demanded by the ministry. A supervisor will monitor the efforts made by the school’s management to implement all the directives of the ministry.
The third school, which violated the ministry’s regulations and facing threat of closure, is in Riyadh. A directorate official will make a detailed report on the improvements being made in the school.
The ministry announcement did not give details of the fourth school which was punished,
Earlier the minister withdrew permanently the licenses issued to three expatriate schools on charges of serious irregularities. The three schools were fined SR50,000 each.
The charges against a school in Riyadh included allowing boys and girls to mix together illegally at a function held at a rest house.
The other two schools were in Jeddah. One of them was closed because its owner suspended teaching in the middle of the year telling the students that he dismissed the existing teaching staff and was looking for new teachers.
The violation of the third school was that it opened a division to teach the US syllabus without license in the middle of the year. The school was also charged with issuing certificates to a student in a careless or criminal manner.
