JEDDAH, 19 April 2006 — The National Dialogue Center announced yesterday the first steps in preparations for the coming Sixth National Dialogue Forum which is entitled “Education: Reality and Development Methods.”
The forum will take place in Al-Jouf and preparatory meetings will be in Al-Jouf, Tabuk, Qasim, Hail and Madinah from May 6-14. Similar meetings will take place in the Kingdom’s other regions later.
The idea behind the preparatory meetings is to generate suggestions and ideas from the public. Later the ideas are examined by a special committee at the center which filters and produces a final draft of topics to be discussed at the forum.
King Abdul Aziz Center Secretary-General Faisal ibn Muammar said that the following aspects of matters pertaining to education would be discussed: Practical Needs of the Educational System, Educational Theories and Practices, Cooperation Between Educational Institutions and Society and the Current Education System.
Officials at the National Dialogue Center stated that the choice of education as the theme was made according to recommendations from participants at previous forums. The question of the efficiency of the present education system was hotly debated, especially at the last three forums.
Ali Al-Anazi, a member of the Shoura Council from Al-Jouf, said that the Northern Region was in great need of institutes of higher education. “The number of colleges, and even the degrees offered, is very limited.” He said that in his most recent address to the Shoura Council, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had said that the next step would be to coordinate development plans in less-developed areas of the Kingdom. “The royal decree to build universities in Hail, Al-Jouf and Jizan clearly shows the government’s commitment to education,” said Al-Anazi.
A major problem facing schools in the Northern Region is inadequate staff, both teachers and administrators, said Fatima Al-Ghasham, principal of a girls’ school in Arar. She was among participants at the previous dialogue in Abha.
“Though many graduates are sitting at home doing nothing, schools are suffering from a shortage of teachers,” she pointed out.
She said that the Northern Region was particularly short of administrative staff. She said that dialogue between school and society in the region simply did not exist.
Abdul Salam Al-Humaid, a high school teacher from Hail, said that the problem is that any dialogue about education must include the younger generation. “It is really unacceptable that the curriculum today is still structured by the same people who did the job 30 years ago. Educational theories develop from one day to another,” he said.
