THE past three decades have seen our country undergo a massive transformation that has affected every aspect of our daily lives. Many of us have moved from a rural Bedouin life dependent on farming and grazing animals to urban life in high-rise buildings.
A society of values and principles whose members cherished and observed magnanimity, hospitality, manhood and virility has turned into a materialistic one where there is not even a bottle of water without payment. Only a few years ago water was available free of charge from wells, springs and other sources.
Our education system of course has been influenced by many of these changes. Change for the better is desirable but when a society progresses economically and socially while its education system retreats, the process must be revised. What happened here was that education was dominated by a single idea that would not accept change, modernization and creativity.
We have heard of a teacher being transferred for saying "No" to his superior who did not want to hear the word. We have heard of a teacher being assaulted by a colleague in front of students about a poem he wrote and posted on the school notice board. We have heard of a schoolmistress ordering that a student receive 80 lashes in public.
Syllabuses were dreamed up, new departments and sections were created with impressive names but they produced what was damaging and bad rather than what was positive and good. And then we were in the year 2001 and all that had been hidden was suddenly brought to the surface.
The fog that has obscured the vision of many for so long has suddenly disappeared and they see things as they really are.
There still remains a great deal to be done. I believe those responsible for education are fully aware of this; my belief is borne out by the changes that have been incorporated into the curriculum, both by deletion and by addition. More attention is now focused on scientific, cultural and intellectual matters as well as on conduct and behavior. Vast sums of money were spent in the past without the desired results. When we apportion blame for this, we must remember bureaucracy and obstruction that we so excel in.
