JEDDAH, 20 October 2005 — During the past few years, the rate of failure among girls in 10th grade has more than doubled. This has raised concerns about the quality of teaching and other possible causes.
The Jeddah Education Administration noted that the number of girls’ failures rose last year from the internationally accepted rate of six percent to 15 percent.
The administration formed a committee to study the issue and implement a plan which identified the causes and addressed them. The findings of the committee have been presented over the past two days to the supervisors of girls’ high schools and some principals in order to get their feedback.
“The plan has two components — a long-term anti-failing campaign and achieving specific goals within deadlines with the cooperation of the Education Supervisory Board,” said Etemad Shuaib, head of the committee.
The study found that the main reason for the high rate of failure was the large, condensed curriculum. Other reasons were negative attitudes of students toward certain subjects such as math and English, the gap between the 9th and 10th grade curriculums and a teacher shortage which has resulted in hiring unqualified teachers. These reasons, in addition to the fact that the 10th year is one of great pressure on the girls, are seen as root causes of the problem.
The plan consists of 25 ways of dealing with the problem and it will be implemented in 29 weeks; the goal is to reduce this year’s failure rate to 11 percent. A task force is to be formed in each school; it will execute the plan that includes focusing on failed students and conducting workshops for both students and teachers who need improvement. Regular meetings will be held to review the steps taken and the results achieved.
While supervisors, school principals and teachers are aware of the problem, they criticize some of the suggestions. “One suggestion is that teachers take improvement workshops. When do they have time for that if they are already over-scheduled?” said one teacher.
A principal observed that some supervisors give negative marks to a teacher or class without considering such factors as crowded classrooms, poor facilities and equipment, overloaded teachers and book shortages.
“There is also the problem of trainee teachers coming in to a class for six weeks. During that time, the regular teacher cannot interfere and this affects the students’ levels,” another principal pointed out.
Another suggestion was to hold a practice exam before the mid-term and final or allow students to retake their mid-term exams. Teachers, however, felt this put too much pressure on them and added to their workloads.
