RIYADH, 12 January — Riyadh Governor Prince Salman will inaugurate here tomorrow the first conference of GCC organizations for gifted people.
The conference, to be held at the Cultural Palace in the Diplomatic Quarter, will explore ways of locating talented people in the Gulf states. It will also seek input on how they are being groomed by other international organizations working in the field and identify the means of achieving coordination among them.
Included among the many participants in the two-day conference will be princes, ministers, diplomats, members of the Shoura Council and the media, according to Dr. Hamad Al-Ba'ady, director-general of King Abdul Aziz and his Companions Foundation for Talented Persons and chairman of the conference preparatory committee.
He said that among the speakers are the deputy chairman of the Foundation and chairman of the executive council, besides Dr. Saeed M. Al-Mullais, director-general of the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS).
Statistics released by the Ministry of Education show that an estimated 3,145 gifted Saudi students in Riyadh will benefit from the ministry's program designed for them. They will be streamed through a special educational program covering classes from third to sixth grade at the primary level. The students will have an enriched curriculum to develop their talents.
The ministry had first launched the program through the Prince Sultan Educational Complex in Riyadh in a move to realize one of the main objectives of the Kingdom's educational policy — identifying gifted pupils and encouraging them to tap their full potential.
However, according to Dr. Badr Al-Bassam, one of the four gifted Saudis who are members of the London-based Mensa International, the flair for talent and creativity cuts across age and all walks of life. “Although one may be a carpenter or in any other ordinary job, he may still be a genius,” Dr. Al- Bassam told Arab News.
He said Gulf organizations working for talented persons would do well to look beyond the young, since “one can remain gifted up to the age of 70. While it is good to encourage budding talents, the creative and inventive genius among others should not be ignored,” said Dr. Al-Bassam, who has a penchant for solving math puzzles and other riddles.
He said organizations in charge of spotting talented persons should lay down criteria, including IQ and psycological tests, that are acceptable to internationally recognized institutions like Mensa. “They should try to benefit from the experience of Mensa which has been working in this field since 1948. Unfortunately, there is a lack of awareness among those tasked with the responsibility,” he observed.
It is equally important to follow up on the gifted pupils after their graduation to help them take up appropriate professional courses and careers. “There is a long-felt need for identifying talented employees working in the ministries of foreign affairs, interior, defense and aviation and other government organizations, so that their skills could be pooled for the benefit of their employers,” he added.
