JEDDAH, 2 March 2006 — The English curriculum is too condensed for ninth graders. This is one of the points raised at the seminar for English Language Teachers’ of Ninth Grade held here on Tuesday by the English department at the Education General Directorate of the Makkah Region.
The goal of the seminar was to include the teachers and supervisors in reviewing the English-language curriculum for the ninth grade. Recommendations were noted.
“We did the same thing with seventh and eighth grade English-language teachers in the past two years when we were making changes to the English curriculum after introducing English in the sixth grade two years ago, and it was a success,” said Mahdi Al-Ardi, head of the English department at the General Directorate in Jeddah.
Around 150 teachers from public and private schools participated in the seminar, which included nine workshops on specific aspects such as book design, lessons, grammar and pictures. At the end of the seminar a committee would formulate the recommendations into a final presentation that would be taken to the Ministry of Education in Riyadh. “The changes to the ninth grade curriculum will be seen in the next school year,” said Al-Ardi to Arab News.
The most common problem sited by the teachers about the ninth grade curriculum was regarding the timing and the content, according to Al-Ardi. The teachers said that the curriculum is too long, especially the exercises, which take much of their class time.
One of the topics discussed was how to improve the English conversation skills of the students. Teachers suggested establishing an English-language club and setting a day when everyone in the school would speak in English.
Changes to the English-language curriculum of the following grade levels will take place next year after conducting a field review to evaluate it in relation to the preceding grade levels of six to nine. This way the students make a smooth transition as they go from one grade level to the next.
