JEDDAH, 10 March 2005 — There is no shortage of opinions on what impedes progress and success in our education system. Teachers and students say nowadays students face many challenges and obstacles, which prevent them from reaching their intended goals.

The three obstacles most frequently mentioned by the persons interviewed for this story were family ignorance, the communication media, and the schools’ failure to reform the students.

A number of educators are calling for developing an improved curricula. They also want to increase family supervision of students and bring back the real rule of teachers.

As there are more students than teachers, let’s allow the students to voice their views first.

“Some lessons are hard to understand the first time; we need the teacher to explain it many times to get it,” said Abdullah Al-Harthi, first intermediate student. “The teacher should use different educational aids in classes and there should be a school library from the beginning of the semester.”

Al-Harthi said there are lots of things that can affect education, from careless teachers who rarely attend classes to not having a good breakfast before school. “There are some teachers who neglect the students, especially the students who are facing educational problems,” he said.

Abdul Aziz Al-Ghamdi puts the blame on teachers. He said some teachers use corporal punishment and other harsh measures, noting that teachers were supposed to have better methods to encourage students to love both school and education.

“Teachers should find exciting ways to teach their students, like using cassettes, videotapes and concrete illustrations,” said Al-Ghamdi.

Sultan Al-Malki, a high school student, said bad friends may encourage students to ignore school, which contributes to crime and inappropriate social behavior. He suspected that family apathy or ignorance might be the main reason for a child’s problems.

“Home is the child kingdom,” said Zeyad Owayd, a student. “If the home is well prepared and filled with a loving atmosphere, students will grow up well. If the family is careless and too busy to ask and follow up with the children and their news, they will be lost.”

Teachers obviously have a different view than their students and add classroom size to the list of woes.

“I moved from one school to another, which made me notice the differences between both schools,” said Ahmad Al-Otaibi. “The first school was more comfortable with fewer students compared to the second one, which had more than 50 students in each class. Class participation becomes a challenge because of this huge number of students.”

Muhammad Al-Harthi, a teacher, is focusing on the school curriculum that depends on inculcation. “The teacher should use technical methods to teach the students and relate the curriculum to daily life,” he added.