DAMMAM: About 90 percent of education output in Saudi Arabia is not linked to the needs of the labor market, Minister of Education Abdullah Al-Obaid said yesterday.
“The function of general education in any country is to prepare students for the labor market or for university education. This is what our current education system is trying to achieve,” Al-Obaid told reporters after attending the formal opening of a forum on secondary education.
He said the problem lies with the Kingdom’s education system, vocational training and other sectors responsible for training the youth once they finish their education. “Our teachers, both male and female, need more training and skills development. Problems arise also because some schools have only a few students while others are crowded,” the minister said.
“There are teachers who work hard to improve their skills and have the potential to deal with new developments in the field, but there are others, especially fresh graduates, who need training,” he said.
Al-Obaid said the SR4.2-billion project launched by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to overhaul general education was aimed at developing teachers by providing them with training in various skills, including computing. “A number of teachers attended training programs and are constantly working to enhance their skills,” he said.
“Like any other country, teachers in the Kingdom have both positive and negative points. What characterizes Saudi Arabia is that its teachers join the profession when they are below the age of 30, so there is room for training and development,” Al-Obaid said.
He revealed that the Ministry of Higher Education was considering the current position of teaching colleges and reviewing the programs they offer. “We are working to see that no one will become a teacher unless we ensure through personal interviews and other tests that he or she is qualified for the profession,” he said.
Al-Obaid said he was surprised at reservations in some quarters about the credit-hour system being implemented in select schools. “Students are rushing to join it. Only students with high grades will be accepted and so parents are keen to have their sons and daughters join,” he said.
The minister said one of the indicators of the success of the new system was the current forum, which grouped about 300 participants, to evaluate the Credit Hours Project, the Sciences and Mathematics Project and the Comprehensive Curricula Development Project that was introduced in 74 Saudi schools last year as a pilot scheme.
The criterion for calculating teachers’ service will further enhance performance, he said. A committee, constituted by a royal decree, is working on the project, he added.
The minister also said a committee, comprising representatives of the ministries of Education, Civil Service and Finance, was discussing the employment of women graduates of teacher training institutes.
“These institutes were established at a time when there were no universities or colleges offering teacher training courses, but they continued to exist since them,” he said, adding that about 60,000 graduates of these institutes are jobless now.
On the status of teachers in private schools, he said they are considered to be working for the private sector and are not subject to the rules of government employees. “As such, their salaries are subject to the regulations applied by the Ministry of Labor,” he added.
