Parents in Jeddah are gearing up for a big change on Sunday, and it’s not just getting the kids ready in the morning, dealing with traffic, and fretting about grades.
For Jedawis, it’s dealing with the new weekend schedule that parents and school officials in Riyadh seem to have a better handle on.
Although the government announced that weekends will now be Friday and Saturday after the previous academic year ended, school officials took it for granted that they must comply with the new order regardless of any notice.
In fact, few schools sent out special notices informing parents and students of the new schedule. Yet most people grasped that the new academic year begins on Sunday, not Saturday.
That is, for some people.
Muhammad Farhatullah Khan teaches mathematics at International Indian School Jeddah.
“In fact our school is opening on Saturday,” he said. “There’s a meeting on this and most probably we will also switch over to the new weekends stipulated by the Saudi government.”
He said as a teacher, he and most parents with children in Indian schools, have no issue with the new schedule.
“My children, however, seem to welcome the new school schedule,” Khan said
Fakeha Zinjani, mother of Fahad Najmi, who studies in the Indian school in Jeddah, said she is unhappy with the change in the weekend schedule.
“It was easy for us during earlier weekends when my husband would get a half-day on Thursday thus making us to take full use of one and a half day,” Zinjani said. “Now since he joins half-day office on Saturday, it deprives us of making any long plan like going to Madinah.”
Hamid Rao, whose son attends the Pakistani school, is happy with this change.
“Our relatives in Pakistan too have a holiday on Saturday and this way we enjoy having conversation with all the members of the family on the same day,” Rao said.
Parents, children adjust to new school schedule
