The biggest joke in this country is the private schools. You pay a lot of money for your son or daughter to learn, but the surprise is that it is you who will learn at the end. You will come to learn that you have fallen prey to the red tape that allowed these bad companies to call themselves “schools.”
You will also come to learn that any complaint you may dare to file against the school will be settled by a telephone call from the principal of the school in which he will say, “Rid us of this nagging parent. He is annoying us!”
I sincerely wish I knew the official in charge of granting licenses for the establishment of private schools. I want to understand from him how things go in his department. I would not delve with him into the educational system, the syllabuses or the other terms and conditions concerning private education. I would simply ask him to go to any private school and try to find a parking place for his car in front of the villa that calls itself a school.
As I am sure he would park in the wrong place, I would inform the traffic police about him and after they tow his car and confiscate his driving license, I would ask him this: How did you give the school a license in this place?
Then, because his car would be gone, I would offer to take him to his workplace in my car on the condition that he first enters a school to listen to the complaints of the teachers who are being badly exploited.
These teachers accept low salaries offered in order to obtain a certificate of experience that would enable them to work in government schools. It is a twisted logic. Private schools are not obliged to employ Saudi teachers but Saudi teachers are obliged to find a job in these schools as a prelude to joining public schools.
As this school official listens to the complaints of the teachers, I would ask him to imagine the silent predicament of the women teachers. I would ask him again: “How on earth did you give the license to this cruel school?”
On the way back, I would ask him to make telephone calls to his counterparts in neighboring countries to ask them about private school fees. I have no doubt that he would discover that our fees are much higher despite the fact that our standards are much lower. When he finishes his international calls, I would ask him: “How on earth did you give a license to this opportunist school?”
As long as the school is located in a wrong place, its teachers are facing difficult work conditions and its administration is ruthlessly sucking the pockets of the parents, then any talk about the low level of education becomes futile. The book is read from its title. The title of the book about Saudi private schools is this: “Whoever Does Not Like Us Should Go To Public Schools.”
