Among recommendations made by participants at the recent National Dialogue Forum on the problems of Saudi youth in Dhahran, one is particularly noteworthy. It called upon the authorities to produce the outline for an overall evaluation of our educational system. Another recommendation stressed the need for reforming our school curriculum in order to produce what the country needs for the future.
All this is good talk and encouraging to hear — except for one thing. The participants who assembled and discussed the problems facing Saudi youth seem to have been unaware of something very important. In other words, the very recommendations they made were in fact made at previous forums. How could they have been so blithely unaware?
When the minister of education took office a few years ago, the first step he took was to order a national education strategy to be based on a thorough evaluation of the education process. The Council of Ministers issued a decision which approved that evaluation. Committees at the highest levels were formed; then more committees were set up and sub-committees followed. All these committees and sub-committees were to conduct the necessary studies and provide the required information. Meeting after meeting was held — and they continue to be held. Still, however, I have not seen the completed study approved by the Council of Ministers nor have I read or heard that any progress has been made in developing a new curriculum based on the evaluation plan.
If I were a senior official whose orders were carried out unquestioningly, I would order all those involved in debating issues of public concern to stop issuing recommendations and begin instead preparing lists of all the recommendations issued over the years. They would discover that all the earlier committees had issued the same recommendations and, as at present, nobody ever bothered to check the recommendations made and so the same ones keep being made over and over. I would also order that no committee should meet or even think of issuing recommendations unless it was sure of not repeating earlier recommendations. If a researcher were to list the recommendations issued by government bodies over the years on the same subject, he would find that the same wording is used and that very few things have been improved. Strategies are always produced; plans are always prepared; studies are always conducted and evaluations are always made.
The problem is blindingly apparent and obvious. We excel at preparing recommendations, producing strategies, preparing plans and proposing solutions. We fail utterly and miserably, however, in carrying out and implementing anything. Even if we begin to implement, our efforts lack seriousness and so soon came to nothing.
If officials at the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue which is the body hosting the forums are really serious about making progress, they should prepare an inventory of all previous recommendations. They might discover that there is no need for new committees and sub-committees and that the necessary recommendations have already been made. The problem is not making the recommendations but carrying them out.
