JEDDAH, 23 May 2006 — A total of 3,731 inmates nationwide are gearing up to take high school equivalency examinations beginning Saturday. The inmates who pass the exams will get their educational degrees.
“All preparations have been made for 2,731 prisoners, including men and women of various levels under the general education, illiteracy eradication and adult education departments, to take their examinations. We wish them all success,” Maj. Gen. Ali ibn Hussein Al-Harithy, director general of prisons, said in a press statement.
Another 1,000 inmates of various state care and rehabilitation homes under the Ministry of Social Affairs will take their exams by the end of the academic year, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
Meanwhile, Riyadh’s general education department formed several committees to facilitate the smooth and speedy conduct of the examinations in jails and hospitals in the region, according to Al-Jazirah newspaper.
Abdul Aziz ibn Dubyan, director of the boys education in Riyadh, said the department was motivated by the desire to help those who want to continue their formal studies but are hampered by their present constraints from freely attending schools.
The committee members include education supervisors and teachers, who will visit the institutions each day of the exams to conduct the tests. Hospital patients are also eligible to take the examinations in their wards, the paper said.
