The Ministry of Education plans to open nurseries in government, foreign and private schools during the coming weeks in order to help female teachers continue their work after having children.

The new regulations were issued by the Minister of Education Dr. Azzam Al-Dakhil, stating that the move comes as a means of creating a more suitable environment for female teachers and to increase their productivity.

New regulations will also be applied to the private sector to assist in opening more nurseries and implementing better early learning programs, according to the regulations of private education.

These programs aim to develop children’s physical, interactive, social and mental abilities through early educational stimulation, applied according to the growing needs of children and the needs of mothers who work as teachers.

These nurseries provide mothers with work stability, psychological relief and increased productivity because they can feel that their children are safe, thus decreasing repeated holiday requests.

The minister noted that the ministry intends to begin opening nurseries for children from birth until three years old. This decision comes after decades of demands to set up nurseries for working female teachers.

In a related development, more than 1.5 million students have returned to schools after the spring break. The Director of education in Riyadh, Mohammad Al-Mirshid, said that the directorate has prepared many training programs for teachers in the education training centers that are located around Riyadh.

He said that the directorate has assigned a committee to follow up on school discipline; the committee is to be assigned to draw plans and will follow up on the implementation of regulations to increase the levels of discipline inside schools.

He said that all the ministry’s supervisors will carry out field visits to follow up on the attendance of teachers and administrators.