“The three-year grace period granted to Qur’an memorization societies to Saudize their institutions will not be enough because sufficient number of teachers are not forthcoming,” Yazeed Abu Malha, a member of the board of directors of the charity in Jeddah said on Monday. He was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting about the society’s plan to award a prize to the best Qur’an memorization society in the Kingdom.

The shortage of teachers is further compounded by the unwillingness of qualified teachers to work in its institutions because of the poor pay and lack of opportunities for promotions unlike in other areas of teaching, he added.

He said another problem was that some departments were not accepting the certificates issued by memorization institutes. He said many memorization societies did not have sufficient funds for successful functioning.

Chairman of the charity Abdul Aziz Al-Hanafi said the best society would be selected on the basis of academic performance, educational leadership and the development of skills in an institution. The other factors to be considered for the prize include the administrative management and teacher performance in a society.

Al-Hanafi hoped that the prize would boost the individual and combined efforts of teachers for the better performance of their institutions.