I hate being pessimistic but the current situation with our young people is not encouraging. Who would believe that a high school graduate with an average of 90 percent would not get into one of our colleges or universities? Are things really as bad as this? What is going on?
First, we must admit that this has become a national problem, affecting much more than our young people. We ought to look at the figures and see how the percentage of high school students who fail to get into post-secondary institutions has been rising. Officials at the Ministry of Higher Education must find a solution even if, as one angry mother suggested, schools are opened in the Empty Quarter!
Who can believe that a girl with a 90 percent average would not get into a Saudi institution for higher education? There are advertisements in newspapers from non-Saudi universities for our high school graduates to join their faculties. The problem calls for urgent solution and there are no signs of solutions. Too many of our young people have become depressed instead of ambitious. Attempts were made to solve the problem by using computers but what we learned was that computers could not arrive at solutions.
In Riyadh, for example, there are girls’ colleges and universities. Up to now, these institutions — which are all Saudi — do not coordinate with each other when accepting and registering students. Instead, they compete on raising the percentage required for acceptance to the level that 95 percent will not admit a student to pharmacy school or medical college — and this, mind you, comes at a time when one of our most pressing needs is for Saudi doctors.
We should also note that some 80 percent of pharmacists in the Kingdom are non-Saudis. One girl said that after getting 95 percent, she began to wonder which course would offer her the best chance in the job market. She was shocked, however, when she learned that all colleges had stopped accepting students because they had been filled with students whose marks were above 95 percent! Can it be that we as a nation breed so fast that we cannot find places for our youngsters in universities and colleges? Or is it more a case of neglect in addressing and solving problems?
Perhaps we should cancel the monthly stipend for students and use it for something more useful, such as assisting students to go to private universities. Our young people are very important; solving their problems is looking out for the future of the Kingdom and everybody who lives in it.
- Arab News From the Local Press 31 August 2003
