JEDDAH: Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil witnessed the launch of the new school year with 5,549,937 pupils going to school in the Kingdom’s various provinces and governorates, distributed among 35,488 schools. He launched two model schools in Riyadh and announced that the ministry has withdrawn 1,300 delayed school projects.

The minister made these remarks during the opening of Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdadi Middle School and Khalid bin Zaid Primary School in the Al-Qadisyah neighborhood of Riyadh.

He said the government continues to develop the education process under all circumstances, in clear reference to the south border schools. He pointed out that the ministry strives to deliver education wherever pupils are located through utilizing modern technology and establishing virtual schools where children interact with education. The system is widespread in advanced countries, he mentioned.

He added that the Ministry of Education provided electronic curricula to complete the sustainability of education in schools at the southern border, and worked around the weak Internet reception in some parts of the Kingdom by providing learning through 12 satellite channels on Arabsat. These channels will be available through the Internet for those who wish to view them in any part of the Kingdom and the world. He said this step will add more Arabic content to the Internet.

Al-Dakhil talked about nurseries, saying they should be founded in all schools, and the ministry has started to study and improve this project.

Deputy Health Minister Al-Dweile’ said the ministry has a roadmap for schools to fight infectious diseases and follow up on nutrition by its medical teams to stop the spread of infectious diseases such as coronavirus. He reassured everyone that schools are free of infections and pupils are in good hands.

Pupils were received by 527,030 teachers, while south border schools received 31,000 pupils.

The Ministry of Education prepared more than 2,000 nurseries to receive around 18,000 children, who will be taken care of by 2,709 baby sitters, 2,185 administrative officers and 1,355 other employees.

Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, director of Jahiz program for school readiness at the Ministry of Education, said the ministry’s efforts are going according to various performance plans and indicators. He said the ministry aims to mobilize and activate the electronic and technical environment to benefit of pupils through electronic curricula and interactive educational portfolios.

He added the ministry has worked to follow up and monitor readiness indicators in depositing operational budgets of schools, build training portfolios for teachers and devise plans to receive new pupils, especially first graders to speed up their integration in school life.

He stressed that all the ministry’s departments will start their work during the first week of school to conduct an evaluation of educational elements of the school environment and define and correct aspects that need speedy support to start an effective and fruitful school year.