JEDDAH, 25 September 2003 — Two weeks into the new school year, many girls’ schools are still without the new or revised textbooks.
“We are short of textbooks in subjects like English, Hadith (the Prophet’s sayings), Arabic Grammar, and Tafseer (Explanation of the Qur’an),” an intermediate school principal told Arab News on condition of anonymity. “I keep asking the General Administration of Girls’ Education but they don’t tell me anything. I call the distributors and they say they’re doing everything they can to get the books out to the schools,” she said.
In the meantime teachers are copying the pages from whatever textbooks can get their hands on. The students are complaining that they are already falling behind in their studies. “How can we review our lessons and do our homework when we don’t have the books?” a student said.
Arab News contacted several officials at the General Administration of Girls’ Education and received different accounts of the reasons for the delay in delivering the textbooks. Some say the committees revising the curriculum are still working on them because even though they completed the revisions before the summer break, when they returned they were told to make more changes. In some cases the whole revised curriculum was dismissed and new textbooks were ordered from abroad. Others said that all the textbooks are ready but the problem is in the storing and distribution process.
The main problem seems to be in the English textbooks for first-year intermediate level. Because English is being introduced in the sixth grade of elementary school this year, there is a lot of confusion and overlap between the old textbook and the new.
The English teacher at an intermediate school only yesterday received her copy of the workbook from which the students will be assigned their homework, but the students haven’t received their copies of either the workbook or the textbook.
At another intermediate school, the students received their workbooks but not their textbooks.
“Some schools received the new textbooks but not the workbooks so they are teaching the new textbooks with the old workbooks. In my school the teachers are using the old textbooks in conjunction with the new workbooks,” the principal said. “There should have been more coordination in introducing the new curriculum. They shouldn’t just dump everything on the teachers who are themselves confused about what to teach and how to use the new books,” she added.
Arab News asked an intermediate-level English teacher what she thought of the changes made in the workbook, and she had positive comments. “The negatives will appear during teaching, but from what I was able to see since I got my copy two days ago it’s more organized, there are fewer chapters, and it’s easier to work with,” she said.
She explained that there were more pictures in the text, more writing exercises and more short essays followed by questions for comprehension. However, she did not think it was right to introduce these changes for this year’s first-year intermediate because they did not learn the basics of English such as the alphabet, pronunciation and simple grammar, which are now being taught in sixth grade elementary.
“It’s a lot of pressure on them, especially when they are already fearful of English,” she added. As for second and third-year intermediate, she does not approve of the text’s focus on grammar. “I would have liked to see more focus on skills they can use in their daily life.”
The Ministry of Education announced that it has revised 32 school textbooks including Tawheed (monotheism), History and English for different school levels. “We haven’t received the new curriculum except for some of the English textbooks,” said an intermediate level school principal.
She said that last year the ministry pulled the history books in the middle of the school year and handed out new ones with a few changes.
“I think they should change the science and math books. They are so outdated and haven’t been changed in years to reflect the developments in science and technology, so most of our students don’t know how to use a computer. I don’t feel like our students are benefiting from all these subjects they are being taught. Most of it is useless information,” she said.
