HOW will you measure your loss when you discover that the private school where you registered your son or daughter is no different from government schools? We have been talking so much about the curriculum in government schools that we have forgotten about standards of education in private schools.
The loss is not in the amount of money paid, but in the years wasted in learning things that could have been taught in government schools. Private schools should teach modern science. I have learned that the fees the private schools charge range from SR15,000 to SR20,000 a year — or at least this is the case in some of them. I did a survey on who benefited from private schools and discovered that most parents do not get what they pay for.
I think this is enough to warrant a close look at private schools, if not by the Education Ministry then by the parents of those who study in them. In the past, parents put their children in private schools in order to avoid the poor standards of government schools. Nowadays, they find private schools to be the best way to score high marks and so register their sons and daughters there. The subjects taught in private schools, such as computer education and foreign languages, are only glistening names.
The Education Ministry has played an important part in weakening the private education sector by forcing these schools to employ Saudis, a move that has damaged the quality of education offered there. It also led to teachers with experience of 15 years or more to leave their jobs and be replaced with newly graduated and inexperienced Saudi teachers.
No one is against Saudization, but this is not the way. The decision was implemented without prior study. The schools did not hire experienced Saudi teachers to replace experienced foreign teachers.
The decision has simply placed a large question mark on private education.
