JEDDAH, 24 April 2007 — Various events have been planned in the Kingdom to coincide with International Education Week, but you wouldn’t know about it if you asked school officials.
The program that the Education Directorate started yesterday is titled “National Forum: Education for All.” It will run until Friday with a series of events.
The forum comes as part of an agreement that Saudi Arabia and 161 other countries signed with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Dakar in 2000. It aims to advocate better education for students. The end game of the UNESCO program is to make primary school compulsory and free for all of the world’s children by 2015.
But in terms of promoting the initiative in the Kingdom, few seem to be aware of the program. Arab News contacted a number of prominent private schools in Jeddah, like Dar Al-Fikr, My Little Home, and Al-Tarbia Al-Islamia School in Riyadh to know more about the events they are supposed to be staging this week. None of the school officials was aware of the National Forum.
The assistant to the general director of education in the Makkah region, Salim Al-Sharari, said that no circular reached them from any government department regarding the weeklong event.
Khalid Al-Rabah, general trustee of the Forum, said that the Education Directorate sent circulars to 83 minor committees in all regions of the Kingdom in addition to ministries and government departments connected with education. The circulars were also sent to schools in the Kingdom and other educational establishments.
“The circulars were sent. There might be some problem with the post (mail) because of which they did not receive them,” he said.
Since the year 2000, the Kingdom has been commemorating education week annually. The program sponsors lectures and events that raise awareness among students on the importance of education.
According to official estimates, the percentage of illiteracy in Saudi Arabia shrank from 60 percent two decades ago to 16 percent this year. This year’s theme is: “Education is a human right.”
