JEDDAH, 13 February 2007 — The Council of Ministers, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, yesterday approved a six-year, SR9-billion project to develop the country’s public education.
The project includes upgrading curricula, improving the education atmosphere and teacher training. The King Abdullah Project for the Development of Public Education was presented to the Cabinet after a ministerial committee chaired by Crown Prince Sultan studied it, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
King Abdullah earlier briefed the Cabinet on the outcome of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and emphasized the importance of Saudi-Russian strategic relations.
The Cabinet also commended the success of the Makkah meeting of Palestinian leaders that was called by the king.
“The Cabinet hopes that the Makkah accord, which the Palestinian leaders signed, as well as the positive international response welcoming the accord, will lead to lifting the suffering of the Palestinian people, reviving the peace process and forcing Israel to accept international legitimacy,” SPA said quoting a Cabinet statement.
Education Minister Abdullah Al-Obaid said the King Abdullah education project was aimed at keeping pace with scientific and technological development and meeting the requirements of the Education Document presented by the king to the GCC leaders as well as the Kingdom’s 8th Five-Year Development Plan.
“It will also meet the hopes and aspirations of Saudi citizens,” Al-Obaid said. “We’ll continue our efforts for the development of education, making use of the successful experiments of countries like Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China, New Zealand, Finland, France, Ireland, Britain, Canada and the US,” he added.
He said the project aims at deepening Islamic values, morals and allegiance to family, society and nation, and appreciating and preserving national achievements. “There are more than 15 mechanisms to implement the project,” he said.
Teachers will be provided with modern information technology to apply them.
“They will also be given intensive training to help them get along with modern developments and changes,” he added.
Al-Obaid said the ministry would carry out seven training programs for more than 400,000 teachers. These programs will focus on subjects of specialization, school management, educational supervision, computer science, self-development and improvement of skills. “The atmosphere in classrooms will be improved by providing modern technological facilities such as interactive boards, displaying devices, communication network and Internet services,” he said.
He said the project also aims at expanding out-of-the-class activities in order to develop better students by improving their cultural and health standards, creating a spirit of competition in making innovations and encouraging them to participate in various social activities. “We have identified more than ten programs in this category, including scientific, cultural, social and sports activities and memorization of the Qur’an and Sunnah,” he said.
A higher committee chaired by Crown Prince Sultan will manage the project, Al-Obaid said. An executive panel has been set up under the chairmanship of Deputy Education Minister Prince Khaled ibn Abdullah Al-Muqrin.
The Cabinet meeting also approved the law of the General Food and Medicine Authority, which was established to ensure safety of food and medicine. It decided to sign a general cooperation agreement with Kenya, and a health cooperation accord with Spain, and endorsed a memorandum of understanding signed with Yemen for cooperation in social affairs.
The meeting reviewed the progress of work at 860 health projects in various parts of the Kingdom as well as the efforts to confront dengue fever in Jeddah. King Abdullah instructed officials to take quick measures to contain the disease.
