THE towering importance the government attaches to education can be judged by one simple little fact. Over a quarter of this year’s record SR475-billion budget is to be spent on it. That is just this year. Last year, over SR100 billion was spent on the education sector, and almost as much the year before.
The 2004-2014 10-year Education Plan includes the construction of 400 new school buildings per year. Licensing systems for private schools will be upgraded every five years, and these schools will be inspected every four years in order to ensure 95 percent Saudization of teachers.
Under the plan, four million Saudi students are expected to graduate from general education, and teachers’ performance is expected to improve by 95 percent.
The Ministry of Education is working toward implementation of other new strategies, such as introducing compulsory education up to the intermediate stage and developing higher education programs to encourage talented students.
The prestigious education zone located at the multibillion-riyal King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) in Rabigh, north of Jeddah, will have state-of-the-art schools and universities that will provide education for all levels. Schools will bring general education and specialized courses. KAEC will also have equipped research centers.
The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is a dream project of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Work is going on apace with Saudi Aramco, the state-owned world’s largest oil company designing and building the university’s campus. The multibillion-riyal project site lies in Thuwal, 80 km north of Jeddah.
King Abdullah has said the university will be a place to share “minds and the ideas of enlightened men and women without discrimination. This will be Islam’s first House of Wisdom and the forum dedicated to science and research will be a beacon of knowledge for future generations.” The campus is stretched over nearly 9,000 acres of coastal land and is expected to be completed by September.
KAUST will be a graduate university where learning will be substantiated by research programs. Aspirants from across the globe will be selected strictly on the basis of merit. KAUST will have research centers and research institutes.
The first four planned research institutes will be: Resources, Energy and Environment; Biosciences and Bioengineering; Materials Science and Engineering; and Applied Mathematics and Computational Science.
KAUST has already tied with many internationally renowned institutes, including Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Indian Institute of Technology, and the National University of Singapore.
Newly announced plans for an $80-million university in the Eastern Province, Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd University, underline a commitment to strengthen domestic institutions of higher education in the Kingdom, and a possible shift away from overseas study.
Moving foreign universities into the Kingdom is one solution to skill shortages.
For this latest venture a coalition of 32 American universities under the umbrella of the Texas International Education Consortium will help set up and run the new university for two years after it opens.
The new Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd University will have 17 academic programs all taught in English.
There have been widespread concerns that sending students abroad could contribute toward brain drain for the home nation, and that the high cost of overseas provision might inhibit the large-scale investment needed for Saudi universities. In fact, the Saudi government recently provided additional large-scale investment to fund existing and open new universities on Saudi soil.
King Abdullah has approved plans to create more than 200,000 new jobs in the education sector. A total of 204,056 new jobs would be created, according to Minister of Civil Service affairs Mohammed bin Ali Al-Fayez.
A particular focus will be on primary and secondary schooling with approximately 1,500 new primary and secondary schools being constructed, in addition to the 3,240 currently under development and another 2,000 under renovation.
