RIYADH, 1 February 2006 — The facts are mind-boggling. Textbooks worth SR2.25 billion are dumped every year into municipal garbage bins by five million Saudi students after they finish their annual exams.
The books are given to students for free. A study conducted by Arab News found that the discarded textbooks have valuable information on health, science and Saudi history and culture which are valuable sources of reference.
According to Ibrahim Al-Bashir, student counselor at an intermediate school, the tendency to throw away textbooks immediately after exams is firmly rooted among students.
“I blame the parents for not encouraging respect for textbooks. They don’t even worry that the textbooks might be needed in case the child fails. It’s a highly irresponsible attitude,” he said.
Asked why he threw away his books after the examination, Khaled Al-Mutairy, a secondary school student, said: “I don’t have to worry about the textbooks which are distributed free of charge by the ministry.” He said that since everybody throws away the books, the pressure to do the same is irresistible.
Official statistics show that there are about five million Saudi children in government schools. Each student, on an average, is supplied 30 textbooks annually and each book is worth about SR15 each. This works out to SR2.25 billion for about 150 million textbooks over two semesters.
The most discouraging aspect of this colossal waste is that the textbooks serve no purpose for students other than as a source of material to be memorized for examinations. There is very little — perhaps no — personal educational or intellectual advancement on the part of students.
As Dr. Saleh Al-Ansari at the Ministry of Education points out, the textbooks on health promote the concept of healthy living and nutritious eating in schools.
The other point to be considered has to do with the loss of the textbooks which could have been used by other students.
Al-Bashir made his point with sadness: “Brought up to believe that everything should come to them through no effort of their own, these spoiled children are vastly different from the Arabs in the past who respected and sought knowledge as Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) commanded.”
