JEDDAH: The Education Department in Riyadh has officially admitted that there are shortcomings in the curriculums of primary and secondary schools, a local publication reported.

Muhammad Al-Murshid, director general of the education department in Riyadh, said a check of the warehouse stock showed that there is a shortage of textbooks and there are shortcomings in the math and science curriculums for the third grade.

Such shortcomings would have a negative impact on the students, the department stated.

Quoting its Warehouse Director Mansour Al-Darwish, the department said an integrated plan for delivering textbooks and curriculums to schools had been prepared.

The statement pointed out that a total of 15 million books have been distributed to boys and girls schools, for the elementary, middle, and secondary levels.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is currently implementing an awareness campaign among parents on the specifications for children’s school bags.

The specification of the bag for elementary students is 40 cm in height, 28 cm in width and 12 cm in depth.

As for both the intermediate and secondary students, the bag size specified is 45 cm in height of 45 cm, 30 cm in width and 12 cm in depth. The size of the bag must suit the age of the student, not exceeding 15 percent of his weight.

This way, the ministry aims to reduce the weight of school bags. It also strongly recommended that students need not carry the books that are not needed during the specific school day. This will enable the students to spend the day working on the worksheets and participate in other educational activities.

This is part of a trial project, which also provides the electronic version of the textbooks via Manahij applications put in place by the ministry, along with the necessary electronic devices needed inside the classroom.

The ministry lately conducted a field survey on more than 600 random students from different study levels in five educational departments in the country, including Madinah, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al-Ahsa and Hail, in respect of the type of school bags and their weight carried by the students.