With 60 percent of the population below the age of 18, Saudi Arabia is a country where education is of vital importance. Unfortunately, despite the government’s best efforts at pouring billions of riyals into building new schools and universities, the educational level of a majority of Saudis leaves much to be desired. The news this week that the government approved the setting up of 15 new colleges across the country is good news indeed, but the fact remains that the Kingdom still remains at the bottom of the list when compared with Western and Asian countries in terms of quality of education. The results were unpleasant but perhaps not too surprising to employers who have had to deal with the thousands of university graduates that are produced every year by Saudi universities. A lack of ability to think critically, write cogently and make independent decisions are just some of the shortcomings that they have had to deal with.
Which makes one wonder why the quality of education and the students it produces continue to disappoint. Is it a case of too much money being thrown at the problem, and not enough thought being put into finding new and creative ways of producing better graduates?
A study recently found that only eight percent of Saudi children attend kindergarten, which is perhaps indicative of the lack of understanding in Saudi parents of just how important an early start at a quality education is in today’s competitive world. This lackadaisical attitude to early education is in sharp contrast to places like New York City where some parents place their kids on waiting lists from the day they are born! And that’s just to get into an excellent kindergarten.
The Kingdom needs an aggressive educational master plan that looks honestly at the nation’s needs and then uses all of its resources to help produce graduates to fulfill them. Children should be led in certain directions such as math, sciences or the arts according to their abilities and inclinations. Science and math streams should be set up in high schools so that students can be honed in certain areas of knowledge even before they reach university. Special classes, tutors and mentors should be assigned in schools in order to nurture our scientists, doctors, engineers, and computer programmers of the future.
The news last month that the Shoura Council had rejected a proposal to provide free Internet access in all public schools and universities was indicative of the shortsighted, old way of thinking. Some Shoura members argued that Internet service was being provided in the country by private, for-profit companies, thus arguing that it would be unfair to expect them to give it away for free. The government could certainly afford to pay for free Internet access in all Saudi schools, and this would provide immediate access to a wealth of knowledge from around the world, that many schools with small libraries now lack.
With around 14,000 Saudis currently studying in the United States on government scholarships, the country can ill afford to end up with graduates who are ill-prepared to work in demanding environments. A change in our whole approach to education is needed in order to not only make us competitive on a global level, but more fundamentally, to meet our local needs.
