RIYADH: The Ministry of Education has granted education departments across the Kingdom a grace period of 49 days to deliver their detailed reports on the results of the first phase of central tests applied at the intermediate educational level.

The first of these tests will be carried out for the first time on Sunday, and the reports will allow education officials to examine the results and begin the implementation of the second phase.

The ministry tasked the departments with conducting field visits to a sample of schools representing 30 percent of all the education departments in the Kingdom to assess their performance, deliver feedback on them, and to prepare technical reports on the required tasks for their improvement.

The return of the central tests at the intermediate study levels comes after an eight-year hiatus by the Ministry for Secondary Education.

Aleqtesadiah newspaper found out that 60 percent of the materials chosen by the education departments involve religious materials whereas the scientific materials did not exceed 10 percent. The remainder of the selected materials involved lessons on the Arabic language and social studies.

The new regulations include preparing question and answer forms and following up on the tests so that each department uses standardized lessons and a standardized test during the first round of the second semester.

The new project includes formulating the questions according to the specifications and taking advantage of the bank of tests.

Nasser bin Abdullah Al-Abdulkareem, director general of education in Madinah, confirmed that all preparations have now been completed so that more than 300,000 students at the intermediate and secondary education levels across various public and private schools for boys and girls can sit the exams for the second semester of the current school year.

“All arrangements were made to create a suitable atmosphere in which the students can sit their tests. The public administration departments have coordinated this with the administrations of the schools in the region in order to make sure that the halls where the exams will be conducted are ready to receive the students,” said Al-Abdulkareem.

In a separate development, The Education Ministry has said that a ban on graduation ceremonies at schools stays, a local publication reported.

The ministry’s statement comes in the wake of reports that schools, especially those for girls, have been spending too much money on these events, and after complaints from parents that they had to fork out for expensive clothing and accessories for their children.

Mubarak Al-Iseimi, spokesman of the ministry, said that schools should honor outstanding students and their teachers during school hours and as part of their end-of-school activities.

The costs of these events should also be kept to a minimum, with all students sticking to the prescribed dress code, and with no exchange of gifts taking place between employees, he said.