JEDDAH, 1 November 2004 — The Ministry of Education announced last week the formation of a committee to investigate the reasons for the shortage of books, teachers, and furnishings that many schools encountered this school year. This was prompted by the piles of complaints received by the ministry from schools all over the Kingdom and by the wide criticism in the media of the annual chaos.
Although this is a recurrent problem, this year it might have been worse because of some apparently last-minute changes in the curriculum. English was introduced to 6th Grade elementary this year and thousands of teachers were needed but due to lack of planning and budgeting, some schools remain without enough books or teachers. Changes were also made in the books of some subjects but again due to irregular distribution of the new books to the schools, many were left using the old books.
“We have received many complaints from schools regarding shortage of books, teachers, desks, and air-conditioners and we forward each complaint to the appropriate department to respond,” said Muneera Al-Masoud from the public relations unit at the Girl’s Education Supervisory Administration.
The response is usually that the storage and distribution department and the project administration and maintenance department has implemented and followed a plan ensuring the timely and accurate distribution of the requested number of books and air-conditioners.
“It is not clear where the problem occurs. Whether it is the school principals not filling a request in time with the correct number of books needed or whether it is the storage and distribution facilities not delivering on time the correct number of books,” said Al-Masoud.
On the other hand, she explains that the storage and distribution facilities themselves have complained of running out of books before delivering on all the orders. This was perhaps due to the opening of new schools and the expansion of some schools resulting in the increase in the number of students.
“That is no excuse of course, but it is easy to make judgments from the outside without knowing the complications and mistakes that happen in the preparations phase,” said Jawaher Mahdi, director of curriculum development unit. She has not heard of the committee formed to investigate these mistakes, and although her unit has nothing to do with the units and administrations that would be questioned, she can find excuse for their shortfall.
Another source at the Girls’ Education Administration also did not hear of the committee but she said that it was something expected considering the media focus and the chaos that ensued at the schools. “We have not received any official notice of this committee but we expected something like this sooner or later,” she said.
Arab News also contacted the storage and distribution administration, but the official there refused to comment.
As for the shortage of teachers, the Ministry of Education announced the availability of 1,047 female teacher’s jobs for Saudis based on annual contracts, 1,041 of which are for English at elementary schools and six for computing. Ahmad Al-Beloushi, deputy director at the Ministry of Education, said applications would be received starting Saturday and for a week and the teachers would be contracted for 180 days with a monthly salary of SR3,500, and they would be officially hired after two months when the new budget is issued.
The applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in English. As for computing, the applicant may have a bachelor’s degree in computer science or in any other major plus a two-year or one-year diploma in computer science.
Meanwhile, the ministry officially denied reports that it might change English in 6th Grade elementary from a required subject to an extracurricular activity because of the shortage in teachers.
