MAKKAH: A total of five million boys and girls head back to some 30,000 schools today across the Kingdom after their summer break.
Two new major schemes — the King Abdullah Project for General Education Development and the transportation project for girls — will be implemented in this academic year.
During the past several days, markets across the Kingdom, particularly those selling school stationeries and related items, were crowded with children and their parents buying back-to-school necessities.
Education officials have also been scrambling to complete the required repairs and renovation of school buildings.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education Abdul Aziz Al-Jarallah said in a statement yesterday that the ministry has made all necessary preparations for the successful beginning of the new academic year today.
“The ministry appointed teachers, supplied sufficient number of textbooks and laboratory equipment, and furnished the schools with all the necessary teaching materials besides completing the maintenance works of school buildings for both boys and girls on schedule,” Al-Jarallah said.
The authorities have also completed the registration of new students.
Officials reported that 11,654 women and 7,729 men have been recently hired as teachers at boys and girls schools Kingdomwide.
About 127 million textbooks in different subjects have been printed and distributed to schools. Special textbooks for Saudi schools abroad have also been sent to their respective centers.
He said more than 700 new school buildings were commissioned to welcome students across the Kingdom.
The ministry is launching the King Abdullah Project for General Education Development in 50 selected schools this year. The SR9-billion project will be implemented in full over the next six years to guarantee the availability of highly skilled and motivated workers in the future.
As part of the project 400,000 teachers will be trained to handle classes in high-tech environment. The transportation project for girl students — a program to provide govenrment busing of girls to and from public schools — is being implemented in selected provinces with the aim of guaranteeing safe transportation for girl students.
The project called Al-Ameen would benefit 500,000 students in the provinces of Riyadh, Makkah, Qassim, Eastern Province, Northern Frontier, Al-Jouf and Madinah in its first phase. While 3,823 buses and 2,678 other vehicles will be used for the purpose, the project would gradually be extended to all girls schools in the Kingdom.
The 20 universities in the Kingdom have enrolled 236,000 incoming freshmen. According to an earlier statement of Minister of Higher Education Khaled Al-Anqari the newly-admitted students would account for 86 percent of this year's high-school graduates. The minister added that a large number of the students would join vocational and military institutes for the continuation of their studies.
However, some education experts said only 50 percent of the high school graduates, including the students forming a backlog from the pervious years, would find seats in universities. They also noted that several students with high grades were left out in the admission process.
The minister said there were difficulties in giving admission to all the school graduates. He also said that the average number of Saudi high school students heading to university was much higher than the international norm. Some members of the Shoura Council urged the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education to create opportunities for all graduates to continue their higher studies.
