JEDDAH, 3 June 2006 — With the growing importance and presence of private schools in Saudi Arabia, the administration for girls education in Jeddah recently organized the first symposium for private school administrations to discuss the role, system and challenges for this sector.
Under the theme titled “Ambition With Creativity,” the symposium was opened by Abdul Kareem Al-Hukail, director of girls education in Jeddah, and attended by Mohammed Al-Enizi, director of private education at the Ministry of Education, and Samia Binladen, director of the education supervisory in Jeddah, as well as directors of private and foreign education from five regions. The goal was to establish the framework for the future of private and foreign education system.
The participants focused on four points: regulation of private and foreign schools, the role of the administration of foreign schools, the education and training guide for private and foreign schools and organizing the relationship between different departments and organizations.
Private schools play a major role in society and the demand for them is increasing as more parents consider them a better option than public schools. With their focus on English language and computer skills at an early age as well as offering a well-rounded set of curriculum and activities, including sports for girls, private schools are seen as offering a competitive advantage in preparing students for college, especially for study abroad, and eventually for the job market.
Al-Hukail cited increasing enrollment in private schools as society’s confidence in their quality and distinction. This persuaded the concerned administration to organize this symposium in an effort to seek ways of developing this sector.
Al-Enizi said he hoped that the recommendations of the symposium, especially with regard to the structural organization and duties at the Ministry of Education and various education administrations where there is an overlap of functions and confusion, would encourage further investment in private education.
Mona Al-Ghamdi, education supervisory director for private and foreign education at the ministry, said that the planning and strategizing phase for the sector in different regions would begin with the restructuring of education administrations within a few months. She said that the ministry will divide the private schools into categories depending on each school’s facilities and raise the subsidies given to them.
Al-Ghamdi said in order to prevent crowding in certain areas, the ministry would take steps to distribute the schools in the regions and districts in accordance with new unified regulations and procedures for both boys and girls schools.
The participants pointed out some of the main problems facing the private and foreign education. They said the bylaw regulating the private schools was issued 33 years ago and the bylaw for foreign schools was issued nine years ago, and neither has been updated since. Another problem discussed was the non-standard curriculums for English and computer education.
The participants also said new additions to the regular mandatory curriculum left the administration and parents without a guideline on the quality offered. A third and very serious problem raised was the common complaint by teachers and administrators in private schools of being overworked and underpaid due to the lack of a standard salary scale.
Many private schools prefer to hire non-Saudis because they are less likely to complain about work conditions especially if they were working without being under the school’s sponsorship. The ministry has addressed that issue three years ago by imposing a fine of SR5,000 on the school for every teacher that is not under its sponsorship.
Private schools are supposed to Saudize their staff but they continue to delay claiming that they cannot find qualified Saudis who meet their criteria to fill up all the positions. Other problems raised includeed concern over schools being understaffed, overlapping responsibilities and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
