JEDDAH, 19 March 2006 — Saudi Arabia has been host recently to a number of foreign delegations that have come in part to discuss matters related to education. Director of International Relations for the Department of Education of the Republic of South Africa Ghaleeb Jeppie was one such delegate who sat down recently with Arab News to discuss the way the educational system is run in his country.
South Africa and Saudi Arabia are on the verge of signing an agreement to exchange students and faculty. The agreement stems from a joint commission meeting held in 2004 in South Africa.
“My visit was fascinating, largely because as government officials we have never had the opportunity to visit the higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia,” said Jeppie. “It is wonderful to get a sense of the overall academic environment in which Saudi students are located, and the challenges that confront higher education or the universities in particular.”
Jeppie said private institutions in the Kingdom are not recruiting talent away from public universities. This means that the quality of the universities isn’t compromised by a loss of talented faculty members to the more costly private institutions, he said.
He did notice in the Kingdom a relative absence of interactions between the foreign student body and the local one. He says it would be beneficial for Saudi students to come in greater contact with students from other countries. “This is the purpose of my visit,” he said, adding that he hopes that the agreement between his country and Saudi Arabia would help with interactions among students from different countries.
As it is, Saudi students that travel abroad generally go to the United States, the UK and Australia. Jeppie said he would like to see more diversity in the educational interactions pointing out that South Africa has made great strides in its educational system.
All of these programs and initiatives work under one federalized system, Jeppie says, so the curriculums are standardized much as they are in Saudi Arabia. “What we have in our country is a single unified education system,” he said.
According to Jeppie all 23 universities in the country are South African. “We don’t have foreign universities,” he said.
South Africa has around 45,000 foreign students, mostly African, who add to the vibrancy of the country’s higher education institutions. The educational system is meaningful as it ensures the continuity of the growing base for the post-graduate foreign students in South Africa.
The South Africans provide around 1.3 billion rands (SR785 million) for scholarships so students can enter universities on a loan basis. “When the students complete their studies and start working, they pay the loans back, so the next generation can enroll too,” he said.
Jeppie calls South African President Thabo Mbeki the “educational president” because “that is what he tries to promote.”
Mbeki has been a proponent of the African Renaissance concept, a key component of the post-apartheid intellectual agenda that calls on African countries to focus on intellectual solutions to the problems, such as AIDS, poverty, ethnic conflicts and environmental degradation, that plague the continent. “The natural resources may dry up, but human resources will keep going,” Jeppie said. That is why South Africa, a traditional leader of the continent, is aiming for high standards in primary and secondary education.
Apartheid in South Africa was marked by, among other things, a denial of access to education for a majority of the population. May 10, 1994, is considered a milestone in South Africa’s modern history. This was the day when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president after the first truly democratic election in the country. The year 1994 also marked the end to 44 years of apartheid policies and the beginning of a long march of reforms that continues to this day. Jeppie says that since 1994, the country has been focused on improving education policies. “We are spending close to 23 percent from our overall government budget on education,” Jeppie pointed out.
The funds slated for education have been spent to reforming curriculums that used to glorify the ruling white minority in South Africa. Today the curriculum has been stripped of apartheid propaganda, said Jeppie, and has been corrected to present a more objective perspective, particularly in relation to history. Jeppie is quick to point out that the curriculum includes celebrating the great women of South African history.
The higher education system in South Africa places an emphasis on issues that affect the continent. Jeppie says the educational reforms that have taken place since the end of apartheid has sought to emphasize African studies as a core curriculum.
Regarding religious studies, Jeppie says that it is not an emphasis in the educational system because South Africa has freedom of religion and therefore has no state-mandated religious curriculum. Jeppie points out that the Education Department of South Africa has approached UNESCO for assistance in incorporating Arabic language studies.
Among other key initiatives discussed was the support for physical education because, “it is part of the curriculum” from kindergarten through university for both men and women. All school championships, qualifiers and district and regional teams are obliged to participate with rewards offered to the athletes.
As Saudi Arabia seeks to empower women in the workplace, it might have something to learn from the South African model. In the post-apartheid era, the country has instituted policies to encourage the participation of women in certain fields dominated by men, such as engineering and other sciences.
“Thanks to our visionary leadership, our minister, who is a very courageous woman, is working on taking education forward,” said Jeppie, referring to South African Education Minister Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor who has held the position since April 2004.
The ultimate goal of the educational reforms happening in both countries is to reduce the unemployment rate, he said. “It has certainly dropped over the past few years in South Africa.”
Thus, in the quest for solutions and overcoming obstacles in society, Jeppie says that engagement with other societies is a key to finding the answers. “Cultural and educational exchange is always encouraged and can hence be useful,” he said.
