Not a day passes when we don’t read about Saudization in the newspaper. What most people talk about is the Saudization of low-grade, socially unacceptable jobs. From this we get the impression that there aren’t any more prestigious jobs that need to be Saudized.
We concentrate on the fruit market, and on designing programs to qualify Saudis to work as butchers and plumbers.
These jobs are important, but there are more important jobs that need to be Saudized first, such as engineering, medical and managerial positions.
If we look at jobs in the health sector, we will see the importance of not so much Saudizing the sector as qualifying Saudis to supervise and manage it.
According to statistics from the Saudi committee of health professions, the percentage of registered Saudi doctors working in the health sector is 16.8 percent of the total number of registered doctors in this group.
The percentage of Saudi dentists is 21.1 percent. The percentage of Saudi pharmacists registered is 11.1 percent. Other statistics show the decline of the percentage of graduates from scientific majors.
According to a study, the average percentage of science graduates declined from 25 percent to 11 percent, while in industrialized countries it is 45 percent, and in developing countries 35 percent.
The declining number of science graduates compared with society’s need and the large number of high school graduates who apply for science majors but whose applications are turned down show up an unacceptable contradiction.
For every Saudi applicant who had his application turned down a foreigner will be recruited from abroad, and he might be less qualified than the Saudi who had his application turned down.
The Saudization of high-prestige professions is a national target that is just as important as Saudizing the fruit market. Employing Saudis will save costs. We will not find it difficult to convince Saudis to study these professions and become doctors, lawyers and engineers.
Arab News From the Local Press 9 August 2003
