My story is different from that of the mother with two young boys mentioned by Tariq Al-Maeena in his column (May 24) and I would like to share it with you hoping that the Ministry of Education would take a closer look at reality and make permission more accessible. I understand that the ministry has a plan, but, to tell the truth, I think the plan will work better if we had a variety of schools, some mixed, others not and some Arabic while others are not. We could also benefit from schools which focus on different areas more than others like some that gave more physical education while others were strictly academic in order to give the parents the opportunity of choosing the best and most suitable type of education for their children. If that were the case, nobody would be so desperate to get their children into a good foreign school.
The current situation is extremely unfair to three sections of the population. First, those who are not Saudi. Let’s take a Lebanese family for instance. In Lebanon, they would have had the opportunity to send their child to any school, but here we are driving a family away by forcing them to a limited choice of schools. That family is most likely here to work on projects that will improve our country for a couple of years and then go away. But we are pushing them away earlier than they had planned.
The next unfortunate group consists of those who are simply holders of the Saudi passport and nothing more. They do not speak Arabic, nor do they understand it and so why force them into our ridiculously closed society? Just let them live. Even if they were pure Saudis, the mother may still be a foreigner and, as we call it “mother tongue”, the whole family would probably be better off in their mother tongue rather than the language of their nationality. The third criteria are those Saudis who already have their children enrolled in international schools. They have obviously chosen that school for a reason. Shouldn’t that be studied and not just denied? Some Saudis may be coming from abroad and wish to maintain the level of education they already have. Others may be living here and have been forever but think this education would be the best for certain reasons.
As for the Arabic, it is everywhere and will not be forgotten if proper precautions are taken. The ministry could even give them yearly examinations and those with deteriorating Arabic may then be reasonably shifted to an Arabic school.
Now let me tell you my personal story. I have two adorable little boys and think I have raised them to the best of standards. At the early ages of one and two, they were sent to a Swiss club in Geneva where we were forced to move because of my husband’s job at a leading private bank. Our children went to their club four times a week where they interacted with many children from different races. We had no trouble getting them in and stayed there for almost two years. After that we finally returned to our beloved home in our beloved country, Saudi Arabia, where I began the long journey of school hunting. In one of our Saudi schools a random child with an enormous bag on his little shoulders asked me right after cursing a friend at the other side of the hallway, “who is more disgusting, an Egyptian or a Palestinian?” My son was right by my side and I am sure he was recording every letter. “What!” I exclaimed. “You cannot use that word, I said. No one is disgusting, that is a nationality. You know what nationality means?”
“No,” replied the six-year-old.
“It means it is just the name of the country that he comes from, the disgusting person is the one who speaks bad words.”
The boy was confused. He did not really understand the concept of diversity. He thought our color and our dress and our code of conduct is simply the best and those we call Palestinians or Indians are the ones who do not follow our code of conduct and behaviors and do not pray like us; in other words, he thought it was simply an adjective. Why? Why should I allow that to happen to my kids? If I cannot improve the whole universe, can’t I at lest try to fix my kid’s world? If I want to do that through sending them to an international community shouldn’t I be able to?
Also, when we come to the educational level, our schools do not provide the output needed to get into a local university with full confidence, let alone one abroad. Very few schools may, but I am absolutely positive that those schools are purely academic and provide no source of activities like swimming or sports on a weekly basis. Some don’t even consider giving physical education classes and regard it as against the Islamic law.
As a concerned mother, I have been to many schools in Riyadh, just in case my son is forced to leave his. I started from the one next door to the one half an hour away. Unfortunately, only one met most of the standards I was looking for. That school is King Faisal. It focuses on the child, both physically and mentally. Now, I know what you are thinking, enroll your kids there and end of the story. No! It is not. King Faisal will cost me around SR110,000 for one year of first grade for both my kids. Now isn’t that too much for an average Saudi like me? Even if I did, I do not think the environment with the richest third of the Saudi population is one where my children will be comfortable. Peer pressure and other factors will eventually seep in and cause my little ones to live a horrible life. Why? That would totally defeat the purpose for which people send their children to schools in the first place.
I understand that there are Saudi-owned international schools that will accept my children, but that is not the environment I want them raised in. What is the idea behind that anyway? Isn’t the idea about quality of education? Or is it more about investment opportunities for Saudis?
Another important point is that my children are way above the standards of the children in the other schools. My son would be giving to the children around him and not be receiving a thing in return.
Finally, I would like to voice my deepest concern. Why am I being deprived of amazing memories with my children? If they are sent off to boys’ schools at the ripe age of six or seven, how will I participate in their school activities? How will I be able to go in and see his little chair and talk to his teacher? You might say a lot of women don’t go see their children; and I answer “yes” but many of those women do not wake up every morning and dress that little child up, make his lunch box and then go with him to school to wait for the bell to ring, kiss him and then say, have a nice day! That is the best part of my day, a moment I cherish till the next day when it all happens again.
If that is the type of life I would like to live then why deprive me of it? Or do I have to get one of the many scholarships that are being given? Travel abroad with my children and live my happy moments there where they will truly grow up in a non-Islamic society. Is that your goal? If so, I guess you have succeeded.
