JEDDAH: The King Abdullah Project for General Education Development (Tatwir) will bring about dramatic changes in the Kingdom’s education system, said Naif Al-Roumi, deputy education minister for planning and development and director general of the project.
“We have started implementing some programs under the project on an experimental basis,” Al-Roumi told Al-Riyadh Arabic daily. “Our plan is to develop the Kingdom’s education system making use of the successful experiments in other countries, such as the United States, South Korea, Singapore and Finland,” he said.
The government has allocated SR9 billion for the project, which is named after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah who wants to introduce drastic reforms in the country’s education system, matching with advanced countries. The current national budget has set aside SR120 billion for education and training.
Al-Roumi emphasized the importance of providing intensive training to teachers to help them cope with new educational developments. More than 400,000 teachers will be trained in school management, educational supervision, computer science and self-development skills. “We have introduced the new science and technology program in 110 schools. Next year it will be applied in all schools,” he said.
The project covers development of mathematics and science studies; development of the general curriculum, development of secondary education system and construction of new school buildings. “The government has allocated SR10 billion from previous budget surpluses for building schools,” he said, adding that within the next three years all rented buildings would be replaced.
Al-Roumi said the King Abdullah project was aimed at developing education at all levels, from kindergarten to the secondary level. “We make use of international expertise, including Arab expertise, at different phases of the project. The training programs for teachers are conducted by national and international institutions.”
The new programs devised under the project aim at development of students. “We don’t care anymore about programs that do not address the development needs of students,” Al-Roumi said. “We have to teach students the learning skills so that they can excel in education using modern technological facilities.”
He said Saudi education officials visited advanced countries to learn from their educational experiments. “We have set certain criteria for educational development and we adopted the experiments of other countries in the light of these criteria.”
The ministry selected 50 secondary schools — 25 each for boys and girls — in different parts of the Kingdom to implement the project. “The schools were selected based on certain criteria including the leader (director) of the school and its infrastructure. In every classroom in these schools there is an electronic board, a projector and a computer system and these schools have Internet connections,” he pointed out.
“We have created an educational gateway for the benefit of students and teachers. Every student has been provided with a laptop computer. The teacher brings his notes in USBs and displaying them on the electronic screen. Students need not take notes, as the teacher will provide them a copy of his notes at the end of his lecture. Students can complete their homework and send it to the teacher’s e-mail.”
Education officials visit these schools to know whether they face any problems in implementing the new programs.
