In recent statements, officials of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training have sought to convince us that they are concerned with training more than general (theoretical) education. Their efforts come at a time when everyone knows that general education accounts for 50 percent of the vocational and technical curriculum. For every two weeks of study, half the material taught is theoretical with the other half spent on technical studies and training.
The job market needs well-trained Saudi youth who have completed a solid course in technical studies. This is essential if our youth are to compete in the market. Our needs demand a redesigning of the curriculum at our institutions of technical education; this redesign includes reviewing all courses taught, reducing the subject load and allocating more time to practical training. Theoretical studies consume too much of the students’ time. If a student passes his technical studies and fails the theoretical courses, he will not receive a certificate or diploma and thus he becomes just another member of the great army of unemployed Saudis. Should these students be penalized because the existing system had denied them both chance and opportunity?
The organization regularly invites teams from outside the Kingdom to evaluate the performance of its institutes. This is a good thing but during a recent visit by a delegation from Britain, all that was reported by the delegation was that students were not following the dress code in the laboratories. Do we really need a delegation of foreign experts to tell us that students are not wearing overalls in the lab? It would have been much better had the foreign experts been allowed to concentrate on the academic shortcomings in the technical colleges and training institutes. They could have advised us about the curriculum and how to best run the institutions, help us to acquire new technology and develop our capabilities using the experience of other countries.
The organization admitted that a major part of the examinations in subjects taught in its institutions are on paper. This is surely no surprise when we remember that half the subjects are theoretical ones. The organization went on to say it planned to open 15 new technical colleges next year; this will unfortunately come at the expense of existing ones, which already suffer shortages of qualified staff. According to the organization, some 20,000 students graduate every year from its institutions. Given that five million foreign workers are in the Kingdom, we will need at least 200 years to replace them with Saudis. Shall we wait all that time? Or shall we begin a rigorous restructuring and redesign of our technical education curriculum?
