One of the main reasons why our educational system continues to lag behind in what is a sadly regrettable state is its failure to cope with the information technology revolution. Students at all levels of education here are often unfamiliar with computers and lack access to the Internet at a time when everywhere in the world — even in our Arab neighbors — the opposite is the case. Why have we not done the same? Long ago, a date should have been set by which every school in the Kingdom would have computers for every one of its teachers and students.
The provision of classrooms with computers is fortunately a reality but only in some private schools. It is, however, grossly unfair that some students have this advantage because their parents can afford to send them to expensive private schools while others are denied access to computers because their parents cannot afford to do so.
Such a discrepancy could easily be overcome by launching a nationwide project that would eventually provide a computer for every school child in the Kingdom. The project should involve local banks whose profits for the year 2004 alone reached SR14.7 billion with an increase of 59.7 percent over the previous year. The project should also involve the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) which is reported to have sustained losses in its overseas stock investments as well as the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) which has been reportedly investing part of the money allocated for the repayment of the public debt in overseas investments that might sustain losses as well.
To enable our children to benefit from the technology and potential benefits and help them acquire much-needed skills, I suggest that the three groups named above join together to implement this project by allowing each student to buy a computer and have access to the Internet for SR10 a day until the computer is paid for. The Ministry of Education could serve as a guarantor for the long-term loan. Companies should be encouraged to manufacture computers locally in order to reduce the cost. Within ten years we could have five million students fully trained to use computers.
The need for providing computers to our schools is urgent. We know that almost all new jobs and many old ones involve the daily use of computers. Having computer skills increases anyone’s employability. What is holding us back?
