JEDDAH, 22 August — The Ministry of Education is now studying how it can utilize the service of some 1,300 teachers of English recruited recently from foreign countries solely for introducing the language to elementary students.
The exercise comes after last Monday’s Cabinet meeting decided to postpone the program until further studies are completed. The Cabinet assigned the Supreme Committee for Educational Policy to study all aspects of the issue and present its report.
Informed ministry sources told Al-Watan daily that the ministry would inform most of the recruited teachers to wait until the studies are completed. But other sources said the new teachers would be utilized for training Saudi teachers.
There are also plans to hold English classes for some groups of elementary students to evaluate the result, the sources said. But they did not say when the new program would be finally implemented.
"The beginning of the program will depend on the Cabinet decision in the light of new studies," Dr. Khaled Al-Awad, deputy minister for education, told Al-Riyadh.
"We have recruited 1,300 teachers. Some of them will arrive in the Kingdom and the ministry will make use of their expertise in one way or other," he said.
"Saudi teachers will be given intensive training and in their place newly recruited teachers will be appointed to improve the standard of English teaching in both intermediate and secondary levels," he said.
Awad said the ministry would present its views on introducing English to elementary schools. "Everything is ready. We’ll present the textbooks and curriculum to the committee," he added.
The Education Ministry had already begun preparations to start teaching English to fourth graders in the new academic year which begins in September.
Presently, English education starts in the seventh grade at public schools. Private international schools, which come under the supervision of the Education Ministry , teach in English.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Humaidan, dean of the Faculty of Languages and Translation at King Saud University, said the introduction of English to primary students required careful study.
He said his faculty was seeking to supply English language teachers required by teachers’ training colleges and schools. "At present our university has no program to train English language teachers," he pointed out.
Humaidan said his faculty was in the process of designing a training program, which requires support in terms of building and teaching staff.
The faculty had given admission to 300 students for learning English this year. He said there is growing interest among Saudis to join English language courses.
