JEDDAH: Students who are identified as gifted and proved this by winning a national competition said officials of the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity excluded them from attending the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for Giftedness and Creativity in Nevada, US.
The reasons for this exclusion appears to have been lost in communication between local coordinators and the officials of the national competition.
Nobody interviewed for this article, including event coordinators and supervisors, would agree to have their names published in this report. “We were clearly told from the start that we all are going to the competition in the US,” said a 17-year-old student.
The young woman’s brother said he was unable to find any “convincing reasons” why his sister and others were first told they would be competing in the US and then later told they wouldn’t be going.
These students, who won a regional talent competition, said that they were invited to Riyadh to attend a workshop that would prepare them for the Intel Fair. “They prepared us from the start by telling us that we would go to the US. They even took our sizes in Riyadh to design us uniforms,” said another student.
However, after arriving in Riyadh, they suddenly were told that they would be evaluated on the day and would be divided into three groups — participants, observers and excluded students.
“We were told that this was just a preparatory stage and it would not necessarily result in us going to the States,” said another student. “I was named to go as an observer but my partner was excluded. How would I go without my partner? This is our joint achievement.”
The congratulation letter that was given to all the first-place winners (a copy of which is obtained by Arab News) states clearly that these students have been selected to attend the Intel Fair.
Students expressed their shock at how this competition — designed to showcase up-and-coming, gifted Saudi students — turned into a waste of time for some of the top-notch pupils.
“We had to leave our studies and devote our time to filling all those forms and prepare for our visas, and now nothing,” said another of the students.
A supervisor of these students confirmed that the organizers of this competition had stated that these students would be going to the competition.
“They met with all the students and told them they would either participate or go as observers; this was their promise,” he said. “I was shocked when my students called me to say that they were excluded. I was with them all along, preparing their documents.”
An official from the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation said that these students went to Riyadh as part of an elimination round and that they were not confirmed to travel to the US before that.
He added that the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair allotted Saudi Arabia six seats for individual projects and three group seats. An American judge was brought in for this elimination round.
“We apologized to (the students) who participated previously and did not benefit from the competition in developing their projects,” said the official.
Some of the girls who were told they wouldn’t be going had been placed first in their regional competitions.
When asked whether their gender had anything to do with being refused travel to the US for the Intel competition, the official denied discrimination but pointed out that the competition separates boys from girls.
“We make separate competitions for boys and girls; this is a situation that happens only in the Kingdom because of our condition, tradition and culture,” he said.
Speaking about the students he said that he felt their pain; however, he does not want to involve emotions in the judgment.
The official also denied that they were definitively told they would be traveling to the international competition but said perhaps the notifications could have been more clearly worded.
