The Ministry of Education sent out a circular telling school administrators not to expect students to pay for extra materials, such as buying newspapers, photocopying texts or requests for donations for school projects.

"All educational tools should be bought from the allocations made for this purpose and from the school funds," Deputy Education Minister Khaled ibn Abdullah Al-Sibaiti said in the circular.

He also said school administrators should not ask students to bring additional school supplies beyond which they need for their own use or expect them to purchase specific brands or types of materials that might cost more than comparable items.

"Students should not be asked to buy materials with special specifications or of high quality. Schools should accept whatever brand of these materials the students may bring," the circular added.

Ministry of Education spokesman Muhammad ibn Saad Al-Dikhaini said the ministry will continue expanding the new curricula, which includes mathematics and natural sciences.

He said the new school syllabuses, which were tried in 40 schools last year, will be introduced in all schools this year.

"The new syllabuses represent a national achievement that was reached after thorough research by specialized committees," he added.

Al-Dikhaini said the new syllabuses were presented to expert publishing houses for their evaluation prior to introducing them. The school textbooks were written by academics under a time plan that started in 2003 when a special committee for book writing was formed.