I am amazed at the recurrent signals that warn Saudi Arabia of the impending social and economic crisis that it is likely to face as a result of the unexpected, fast growth of its population.
We are a lucky nation. At a time when the population of many countries in the developing world are dwindling and aging, ours is rising, getting younger and growing stronger.
We should be thankful that 60 percent of our population is below the age of twenty. It is a fact to be hailed, not lamented, provided we prepare our children for the challenges of life in a multicultural, multifaith global society and in an increasingly interdependent world.
Our children are assets, not liabilities. Their education is an important, difficult task that should be shared by the family, the school, the university, all governmental and all non-governmental organizations.
It is a responsibility that we should all shoulder and a duty that should be carried out in the light of sound educational policies.
We should drastically reduce investments in material objects and superfluous luxuries, and greatly increase investments in our children and in the improvement of the education they receive.
Our children, not our petrol, are our real wealth and the true source of security, prosperity social development and economic growth. If they grow up, like wild mushroom, unsupervised, too sheltered or too isolated from the outside world, we will have failed them.
If we spoil them beyond reason, shower them with expensive material goods, surround them with too much luxury and comfort, we will teach them arrogance, selfishness, laziness and dependence.
We will end up with millions of consumers, and a trickle of producers. We will cry over our very precious spilt milk, when it will be too late to correct our mistakes.
Our children are the seeds of our sustainable social and economic development. We should protect them from diseases and drugs and keep them away from visible and invisible harmful influences.
We should handle them with care, plant them in healthy soil, nourish them with self-confidence and good education, water them with love and wisdom and allow them to breathe and develop in a climate free of hypocrisy, selfishness, hatred, corruption, flattery and materialism.
They are our brain and the new blood we desperately need. We should give them hope in a bright future and provide them with unlimited career opportunities.
We should neither allow them to search for better opportunities away from home, nor give the devil an opportunity to steal them, manipulate them and turn them into daggers that sticks deep in our soft hearts.
They should act in the interests of our country and the world, not against both or against either.
We have tried our best to give our children good education. Despite our great accomplishments, we have not yet achieved all our objectives and we have not attained all the desired results.
Our educational system is relatively young. It is still suffering from teething problems. Our schools, our textbooks and our teaching have been severely criticized.
The criticism is neither totally valid nor entirely unjustified, but it is timely, helpful and welcome.
It has motivated us to reshuffle our education system and has given us the incentive to embark on a much-needed reform. It has prompted us to review, refine and upgrade our educational policies, our educational tools and our educational instruments.
We have wisely opted for a home driven educational reform and have chosen to entrust the important task of writing and editing our textbooks to local education specialists, many of whom hold higher degrees from the West.
We have rightly decided to formulate educational policies that will help us preserve the precious baby and throw away the dirty bath water.
We have insisted on our right to bring up our children as proud Arabs, good Muslims, loyal national citizens and cooperative, respectable world citizens.
We have shown a desire and a willingness to benefit from the experiences and expertise of the developed world. Stakeholders have engaged in formal and non-formal educational debates. Extremism is against Islam.
Therefore, we have reached a consensus to offer our children an education that teaches our children tolerance, compassion, respect for world faiths and appreciation of world cultures. Our textbooks and our school curricula have been revised and improved.
The road is bumpy and long. We have taken few steps in the right direction. Can we afford to slow the pace?
(Ibtissam Al-Bassam is a former dean of King Fahd Academy in London and a present staff member of UNESCO. The views expressed are hers alone, and not those of UNESCO.)
