JEDDAH, 24 July 2003 — The first time I tried to contact the General Presidency of Girls’ Education was in September last year. It had just been merged with the Ministry of Education and was assigned a new president. I wanted to ask some questions of the new president or a spokesperson from his administration about the changes he intended to make in the schools and the curriculum.
Dr. Khidr Qurashi’s post was created after the merger as a direct result of the tragic fire that occurred at a girl’s school in Makkah six months earlier, in which 14 girls died and 52 were injured. The investigation into the accident concluded that the cause of the deaths and injuries was the poor condition of the rented building, lack of fire safety measures, the overcrowding of the school, and the girls’ inability to leave the building because the door was locked from the outside. After trying several phone numbers and being transferred from one administrator to another, I was finally able to contact the public relations office of the presidency and spoke to the director. He requested that I fax him my questions, which he would pass on to the president.
My questions were: Have you had a chance to inspect for yourself the condition of girls’ schools in the country, and what is your assessment of their safety and suitability as schools? Is it still the policy to lock the schools’ doors from the outside? What steps have you taken and plan to take in order to improve the schools’ conditions and to prevent such a disaster from happening again? What have you done or plan to do with regard to the matter of efficient transferal of teachers? What has been done about the safe transportation of teachers to and from the villages where they teach, since there have been several road accidents where teachers were killed or injured? What changes do you think need to be made to the curriculum, and why is there still a difference between the girls’ curriculum and the boys’ in subjects like English and Physical Education? And, finally, do you think that a female president for girls would be better able to serve their needs, or is there a case for having at least a female deputy president who can supervise girls’ schools directly?
These are serious issues that have been and continue to be raised in the media, but no one seems to have any luck getting straight answers to them. After weeks and months of calling the PR manager, who kept saying that the fax was in the president’s office and he was working on answering the questions, I gave up. I don’t know if the questions were too difficult to answer or if there weren’t any answers. Either way I think concerned parents have the right to know what kinds of developments and discussions are taking place regarding their daughters’ education.
Unlike other government departments, which usually respond within a reasonable period of time to inquiries from reporters, the General Presidency of Girls’ Education hardly ever grants interviews or answer questions. The only time we hear from it is through press releases, and good luck getting any clarification or follow-up questions on those press releases. I tried again in April 2003 with the media and PR office of the presidency in Jeddah, to have questions answered about some recent decisions announced by the presidency. I asked about news that evaluations are taking place of various subjects in the girls’ curriculum.
I also asked about the announcement that teachers will undergo an annual evaluation of their performance, and about the decision to reassign some office staff as teachers or school administrators in the middle of the school semester.
These sudden decisions raised questions of why, how and what is their goal. Some people were objecting to them, but most just wanted to understand developments affecting not only their lives but also their children’s future.
Again, weeks went by after I faxed my questions. I called and was told everything had to go to head office and they had strict orders not to speak to the media without getting clearance. Recently, a decision was made to force students a few days younger than the cut-off birth date specified for enrollment who were exempted by the Ministry of Education last year to repeat the first year of elementary school.
There was a public outcry at the decision, but no one heard an official logical explanation to it. We read in the newspapers of female teachers complaining about policies and procedures, parents disappointed in the conditions of schools and students frustrated with the curriculum, final exams and college enrollment, but no official comments or explanations were forthcoming.
Many feel that the presidency is deliberately trying to keep their daughters out of schools and universities and make teachers’ lives as miserable as possible because there aren’t enough schools to accommodate them and enough budget to open new schools and pay salaries.
While schools are out for the summer, we know that the presidency is working on new policies without consulting or taking into consideration either the points of view of teachers or the needs of the students. They will all be surprised by the decisions the presidency has made when they return from vacation.
