Teachers and students in Riyadh will have to arrive 15 minutes earlier at schools during the new academic year to avoid traffic snags.
The provincial directorate of education announced that all schools will begin at 6:30 a.m. instead of 6:45 am. The new schedule becomes effective Sept. 15.
“The school time has advanced 15 minutes in order to ease congestion on roads when million of students and teachers start going to school,” Ibrahim Al-Musned, director general of Riyadh Education, said on Friday.
Al-Musned added that the decision was also in line with the instructions of Education Minister Prince Faisal bin Abdullah and Riyadh Gov. Prince Khaled bin Bandar.
He called on all school principals, including private schools in the city, to implement the new schedule so that school assemblies will take place at 6:30 a.m. and the first period will start at 6:45 a.m.
He also urged teachers and guardians to cooperate with the new schedule.
“The new timing will be implemented two weeks after the opening day of the new school year in order to give sufficient time for cleaning and student transporting companies to get ready for their tasks,“Al-Musned said. “During the two weeks the electronic bell system could also be changed to suit the new timing of periods and intervals.”
He also appealed to drivers of buses and cars to cooperate with the traffic police and adhere to regulations, such as keeping to the correct track, not to park vehicles at wrong spaces and educational institutions, and to avoid speeding.
Transporting students and teachers, particularly women teachers and female students, has been a challenge for school authorities during the past years.
The schools reopen Sunday after they remained closed since early July.
The schools will have now on a Sunday through Thursday academic week.
A report last year put the number of school students, including primary, intermediate and secondary, at 4.92 million studying in 26,934 schools with 46,000 teachers.
Schools in Riyadh to start classes 15 minutes earlier
