JEDDAH, 24 February 2004 — The Girls’ Education Administration at the Ministry of Education is asking parents to sign to a strict new code of conduct for girls’ schools it has issued.
The regulations deal with both attendance and behavior and specify punishment for transgressors. Under the code, students are given 100 points per semester — 200 for the year — from which points are deducted for violations. The final mark out of 200 is added to the students’ grade and becomes a part of the grade point average or GPA.
The attendance regulations include deductions for absence and tardiness without acceptable excuses; if absences exceed 20 percent of classes, the student is barred from the final examination.
The majority of the code deals with students’ behavior at school and the deductions for each violation. It details desirable behavior for girls, including praying on time, wearing hijab and the appropriate school uniform, punctuality and good manners. Violations are divided into five categories with the fifth mandating temporary expulsion.
Girls will be expelled for disrespectful and blasphemous conduct and beliefs; magic; failure to pray; possessing, taking or selling drugs; deviant behavior; dating and having unlawful relations with men or leading others to this behavior; causing permanent injury to members of the school staff; possessing and using weapons and other dangerous items; and if their presence “becomes a danger to the school”.
Violations that make girls liable to point deductions include, in the first category, sleeping in class and using makeup; in the fourth category smoking, making threats and verbal and physical abuse of school staff. Students will receive the full 200 points if they commit no violations; they can regain lost points if their behavior improves.
“These are guidelines for regulating students’ behavior and attendance. They are mandatory and will be enforced,” said Hayat Al-Mutawe, director of the students’ guidance and advice department at the Girls’ Administration. “The goal is to improve and develop the education process based on Islamic principles,” she said.
Points will not be deducted by teachers, Al-Mutawe explained. Rather, there will be a committee in each school, headed by the principal, which will be responsible for applying the regulations case by case and following procedure. “We will conduct intensive awareness campaigns for parents before these regulations are applied,” she said.
Many teachers, principals, mothers and students approve of the regulations. “As a mother, I respect this step,” said a mother of two girls. Although she has confidence in her daughters, she worries about them being exposed to bad influences at school. “A good student has nothing to fear, and I’m not concerned about a teacher abusing her power,” said the mother of a 14-year-old. Her daughter is also happy because, as she said, some of the girls are “really scary.”
Teachers feel they will now be able to get the attention of parents who see how their daughter’s grades are affected by her behavior.
“We will review the regulations after a certain period and report on the positives and negatives,” said Al-Mutawe.
A similar code for boys’ schools came out last year.
