We are happy with the educational progress achieved by our country in recent years. Some 50 years back education was not available for virtually all citizens in the country. For women, education remained difficult until King Faisal who introduced a wise plan to educate women.
Saudi women have made tremendous progress in education ever since: They now compete with (and in many cases surpass) their male counterparts to get seats at colleges and universities at home and abroad. Subsequently, illiteracy among Saudi women has become history.
Our speedy progress in education was accompanied by some mistakes, most importantly our indifference toward nursery schools. In a large city like Riyadh, we can find only a few numbers of nursery schools and specialized centers to take care of children. Studies have also showed that the period of time they operate is very short; generally ending at noon.
Most nursery schools do not follow any specific curriculum and their activities depend mainly on the skills of its teachers and managers. Some nurseries take only the children of government employees while others charge exorbitant fees that are not affordable by most parents. We cannot deny the fact that some nursery teachers beat and abuse children while some apply such methods as biting and pinching to control them.
The Ministry of Education does not provide adequate attention to children in this age group. It has not specified the maximum number of children that can be admitted to a class and has not set the qualifications of teachers working at these schools. As a result, a private nursery school appoints teachers who are ready to accept abysmally low salaries. A teacher will be asked to teach as many students as possible, without providing her with a specific curriculum. The lack of an adequate monitoring system allows teachers to abuse children. As a result, we cannot expect from these teachers anything good for our children. They can only silence the children for four to five hours.
I have to emphasize here that the general belief that nurseries are not important is wrong. The idea probably derives from the previous condition of mothers who were then free to take care of their children. Now an increasing number of them are working. They have to get out of their houses to do their jobs at hospitals and educational institutions or to complete their higher studies.
And herein lies the need for establishing a large number of quality nurseries to take care of our children. A child who is living with his peers will have a strong, intelligent and cheerful personality compared to those staying inside their houses with maidservants. The presence of good nurseries following higher academic and health standards will encourage families to send their children to them instead of keeping them at homes with maids.
Leaving children inside homes at the mercy of maidservants is not at all advisable. That will have negative effects on the child, maid and the parents. We read a lot of reports in local newspapers on the problems caused by maids while taking care of children. Such reports are enough to convince both authorities and parents about the significance of nursery schools.
If the Ministry of Education gives adequate importance to this subject and reorganizes the country’s nursery school system, it would certainly have positive results. Such a system would not only provide better education and care to our children, but also create new employment opportunities for Saudi teachers.
Most important, the presence of good nursery schools would encourage parents to think seriously about getting rid of untrained maids who are not interested in taking care of children. By introducing this system, maids would not get a chance to hurt our children and could concentrate more on other household works.
Another important benefit of this system is that our children will be in the hands of qualified teachers who know the psychology of children and how to bring them up in the right manner. There is no doubt that our children will receive proper care and attention in a suitable academic atmosphere. The nursery education will help our children to acclimatize easily with general school atmosphere and achieve academic excellence.
Economically, nursery schools will open a new field of investment for our businessmen and women and will also help build a good economy and create more job opportunities for Saudi women as teachers, administrators and nurses. Moreover, the presence of well-organized nursery schools with good educational programs would help parents provide their children with good care and education from the early stage of their life, instead of leaving them as victims of their busy employment life.
(Maha Al-Hujailan is a medical researcher at King Khaled University Hospital in Riyadh. She can be reached at [email protected].)
