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[sheikher]

While politically correct UK has its own adventures with curriculum selection within the private school sector http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11799713 and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331789/Sharia-lessons-pupils-aged-BBC-uncovers-weekend-schools.html#comments , Saudi Arabia's tiller of public education keeps the ship moving in ever-tightening circles.

http://mideastposts.com/2010/10/26/saudi-education-still-fighting-to-enter-the-21st-century/


Saudi Education � A Fight to Enter the 21st Century�

Written by Eman-Al-Nafjan

Two areas that ultra-conservatives have a stronghold on in Saudi are the judicial system and the education sector. These ultra-conservatives do not pay much heed towards the banking sector, healthcare, commerce and all other areas. But when it comes to our courts and our schools, they just won�t budge. In this post I�m going address the education sector and their control over it.

This control goes way back to 1960 when it was decided that girls will be allowed to get an education. Men from all over but mainly from Qaseem travelled to the capital to express their opposition even though the girl schools were completely gender segregated and had a separate administrative body overseeing it from the education ministry overseeing the boys� schools. Throughout the years, the ministers of girls� education were overwhelmingly long-bearded muttawas and the whole ministry favored employing people who were religiously conservative. Those were the days when mirrors were banned from bathrooms, and uniforms that define the waist or have a belt were against the rules even for teachers. All our beautiful little girls were dressed in bland gray or brown cloth cut into the shape of your grandma�s full-length and long-sleeved house dress. If they cut their hair too short they were punished, and if they styled or let their long hair down they were punished. Stories about principals putting Vaseline in girls� hair as punishment abound.

Around 1974, the idea that elementary schools would not be gender�segregated was floated around. At that time Shiekh Bin Baz and Sheikh Bin Othaimeen were the most prominent religious leaders. A news organization recently unearthed correspondence http://www.news-sa.com/snews/1808--37-.html that is alleged to be between the two sheikhs in which they were conspiring on how to stop the sinful mixing of boys and girls in elementary schools. Scans of the handwritten letters are also shown in the report.

The country�s concession to the religious establishment�s control over girls� education stayed pretty much the same through out the 1980s and 1990s. Things changed on the 11th of March 2002, but only after 15 girls died in a fire after the PVPV obstructed the entrance to the school. The PVPV did not let out students who weren�t covered and did not allow the civil defense to enter the school. HRW http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2002/03/15/saudia3801.htm and BBC Reports http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1893349.stm of the incident.

The separate ministry responsible for girls� education was absolved and the administration of girls� schools was put under the care of the main education ministry that was already overseeing the boys� schools. How has this changed things on the ground? Not much. Most girl schools are locked during school hours. Physical education is still banned for girls. Subjects are still gender-specific, so that there�s a different science book for girls than the one for boys and so on for all subjects. Some of the things that have changed are the uniforms. For the past three years, elementary girls wear a plain white or striped blouse with a sleeveless gray overdress and the same for older girls except that the dress is navy. Both have defined waists. It�s an improvement.

The biggest changes are that since last year, principals are given the freedom to choose to allow boys from first to third grade, on the condition that classes would be segregated. The point being that boys at this young age would be better off taught by female teachers and to open up more positions in the education sector for unemployed women. This gender mixing of course is being fought by the religious establishment just like in 1974. Shiekh Yousef Al Ahmed escorted a band of muttawas http://www.alwatan.com.sa/Local/News_Detail.aspx?ArticleID=8017&CategoryID=5 to object this decision at one of the education ministry offices. A judge published a piece http://www.sabq.org/sabq/user/articles.do?id=306 on a hypothetical situation where a first grade boy is so attracted to his teachers that he flunks on purpose to stay in the girls� school for as long as possible. Then 20 years later he still can�t stop thinking about them so he finds and hooks up online with one of his elementary teachers resulting in her divorce. In their minds this is not at all far-fetched.

So what�s a typical school day in a Saudi girls� public school? The day starts with assembly at 6:45 am. First class starts at 7 and the school day ends at 12:30 pm. Around one quarter of the school schedule for an 8th grade is learning religion.

All that time learning religion and morals and yet our whole society has a culture of unofficially and officially policing each other otherwise we would go wild. After all that religious teaching and our students can�t even Islamically behave in malls so men are banned from entering them without their families because before the ban many harassed and chased women shoppers. Women can�t walk in the streets fully covered head to toe without being harassed. Work ethics, honesty and abiding laws are not widely practiced concepts. So what�s the point of all those religious classes if they don�t translate into a moral society?

And then there�s all this hoopla about the improvements in the science and math curriculum and that they are comparable to international standards. Let me show you third grade science books. These are the main spreads from the first lesson of each book:

The Saudi text book above. An American text book below. [See article link above for photos.]

The Saudi textbook is 145 pages. Most pages only have a few sentences. The American textbook is 495 pages, has a glossary, index, many experiments and most pages contain several paragraphs.

Lastly, there�s the teachers. In all the schools I�ve been in, here in Riyadh and Tabuk, they averaged 30 students per class. Teachers could be given a maximum of 24 periods per week. So if you are a history teacher and each class has two periods, then it�s possible that you would be asked to teach 12 different classrooms. And at 30 students per class, that�s 360 students. That�s quite a feat for a schoolteacher. The workload is only one aspect of how things are. The female teachers I�ve talked to, also complain about not having any health insurance, about being locked up during school hours and having to convince the principal before being allowed to leave and about gender discrimination when it comes to how pensions are paid out.

I know that the current ministry has big plans for education but they also have mountainous challenges. The religious establishment having had control for so long, their people are in almost every office, dragging their feet against anything that even smells western. The current teaching staff is a product of the very same system and has not known any other, getting them to change would be a miracle. Miracles have been known to happen. Right now praying for one is the only thing I can do.

[scot47]

The astonishing thing is that pupils go through 12 years of full-time education - without learning anything ! Just one of many reasons why this is the "Magic Kingdom" !

[sheikher]

May I just re-enter this thread here with seeming evidence that challenges the journo's final paragraph?

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010072178712&archiveissuedate=21/07/2010

School principals asked to report on extremism in staff

JEDDAH � The Ministry of Education has tasked school principals with reporting signs of extremism in their staff, Al-Watan Arabic daily reported Tuesday.

The ministry, according to Al-Watan, has commenced its �Complete Protective Program for Education Staff Issues� with workshops in Madina, Sabya and Qassim, a program described by Deputy Minister for Education Affairs Abdul Rahman Al-Barrak as a �comprehensive system to monitor teachers�.

Al-Barrak told Al-Watan on Monday that the program would observe �performance and ideological leanings� through �school administrations and supervisory bodies�.

The newspaper reported sources as saying that school authorities had received a circular requesting principals or other officials directly responsible at schools to produce detailed reports on teachers which should contain any observations related to issues concerning extremism or �lack of patriotism�.

The sources said that the reports were one of the stipulations of a �procedural guide� outlining 18 issues that has been produced for handling staff issues.

�The workshops are currently discussing trial applications of the guide and will take into account new measures for school principals and supervisory bodies to inform of various issues, including ideological extremism,� the sources said.

�The guide�s measures have already been introduced at ten school administrations on a trial and modification basis ahead of being put into effect across the country.�

The scheme, Al-Watan was told, would be introduced at both boys� and girls� schools after the measures were initially targeting only male teachers, and would involve the utmost confidentiality in the handling of cases. Cases will be dealt with, the newspaper said, �without delay�, and with the �coordination of education bodies through the relevant bodies at the Ministry of Interior�.

Saudi Gazette reported on July 13 an adviser to Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, Assistant Interior Minister for Security Affairs, as saying that approximately 2,000 teachers had been transferred to administrative positions outside education over the last two years for promoting extremist ideology.

Abdul Rahman Al-Hadlaq, who is the Ministry of Interior�s head of the General Administration for Intellectual Security, described the teachers in question as having �turned the educational message of study subjects into an administration for the promotion of deviant ideology�. � SG __




http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010071377917&archiveissuedate=13/07/2010

2,000 extremist teachers removed

By Mutib Al-Awwad

HAIL � About 2,000 teachers have been transferred to administrative positions outside education over the last two years for promoting extremist ideology, an adviser to Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, Assistant Interior Minister for Security Affairs, has said.

Abdul Rahman Al-Hadlaq, who is also the Ministry of Interior�s head of the General Administration for Intellectual Security, said the teachers �turned the educational message of study subjects into an administration for the promotion of deviant ideology�. �For example, one teacher accused an English teacher colleague of being an unbeliever, saying he was teaching the language of the kuffaar,� Al-Hadlaq said.

The ministries of Civil Service, Interior and Education reportedly worked together to extend jurisdictions and transfer �for the public good� teachers involved in cases of security, moral or professional concern to positions outside the realm of education without recourse to the Teachers� Committee.

Al-Hadlaq denied accusations of extremism leveled at the public education curriculum.

�Many of us have gone through the same curricula and have not become extremist, and if you look at countries that don�t teach our curricula you�ll find that they have extremists,� he said.

Al-Hadlaq added that he had not found any examples of extremism in the curricula but on the contrary had encountered a �consolidation of the proper intellectual ideas�.

Instead, Al-Hadlaq said, there is a �need to review scholarships abroad and their negative intellectual effect�.

According to Al-Hadlaq, a study by the General Administration for Intellectual Security showed that most persons associated with deviant ideology were �young in age, of the middle income group, and of middle to lower class�.

Recruitment, he said, was conducted through gatherings in mosques and universities, meetings of relatives, and religious activities, while intellectual deviancy was evident in �religious immoderation, turning to terrorism, ill-thinking of others, and issuing their own fatwas�.

The reasons for deviancy, he said, were a �lack of Shariah awareness, a lack of balance, and suspect sources information�.

�The study showed they had poor knowledge of Shariah, even their theorists and leaders,� he said.

Al-Hadlaq added that a strategy of intellectual confrontation was in place at the Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Center to �protect, rehabilitate and supervise� through dialogue and courses to address any doubts detainees may have and oversee their emotional and social conditions. � Okaz/SG __


And, on a final note, a skill-testing question. What does the following press release imply regarding the quality of instruction in faculties of education across the Kingdom?

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010061074937&archiveissuedate=10/06/2010

900 teachers allowed to rewrite assessment tests

By Khaled Al-Blahidi and Sa�eed Al-Bahiss

14,000 employees earn less than SR2,000 a month

KHOBAR � A total of 900 graduates of teacher training colleges and universities, who failed the Ministry of Education�s job assessment tests, will now be allowed to rewrite the examination.
This was the order issued on Wednesday by the Minister of Education, Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah.

Prince Faisal urged officials to make the necessary arrangements to enable the candidates to repeat the test.

He said it was important for new teachers to take extra training courses to help them pass the test and so qualify for a teacher�s job.

At a press conference held on the sidelines of the 19th forum for education leaders, which ended on Wednesday in Khobar, Prince Faisal disclosed that there are 14,000 employees currently earning daily wages, amounting to less than SR2,000 a month. These workers cost the government SR85,000 a day. He said the ministry has taken note of the situation and plans to find a solution to end the suffering of these employees.

He said he has also asked officials at the ministry why no women have been nominated for higher posts. He said that women have the right to be allowed to take up top positions as long as they deserve promotion.

Prince Faisal said that he holds the directors of education, in the regions and governorates, responsible for leading the education process in their areas. He called on them to take the initiative and not wait for orders or decisions from the ministry. He said they must help to inculcate a spirit of enterprise in schools and to come up with creative and developmental solutions. He added that in future, expanded powers will be given to the directors of education and then later to school principals.

He added that it was �natural� for the comprehensive reform and development process in education to take time.

Prince Faisal said that the leadership has given the go-ahead to the ministry�s future steps, which includes the establishment of a state-owned development holding company, decentralization of powers, expansion of kindergartens, partnership with social institutions and working with the private sector.

Other plans that have been given approval are an integrated program for electronic and technological developments and the current work taking place on developing curricula. � Okaz/SG __


BONUS POINTS to answer skill-testing question #2. Would you recommend a company http://pts-sa.net/ committed to "Those who command themselves command others." -William Hazlitt to education directors commanded by Prince Faisal to ...take the initiative and not wait for orders or decisions from the ministry. He said they must help to inculcate a spirit of enterprise in schools and to come up with creative and developmental solutions?

If yes, what's your cut?

[sheikher]

May I just jump in here again with this outrageous phenomenon in Saudi Arabia's public school sector? In reference to textbooks mentioned in the jouro's submission, and Mr Scot's remark implying that students learn nothing.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010062876565 ATTENTION: photo not for the faint-of-heart!

80 million schoolbooks dumped as exams end

JEDDAH � Educators have called for measures to put an end to the vast annual waste of school materials as pupils cast their books onto pavement piles upon completion of their examinations.

Al-Madina Arabic daily reported Sunday that some 80 million books worth around SR1 billion face being thrown away each year, as evidenced by large piles of materials already starting to appear in schools and on pavements outside as the examination period approaches its final days.

�School books are a source of knowledge and culture and printing them costs the state a huge amount of effort and money,� said school principal Saeed Al-Ghamdi.

�If you take into account that there are around four million pupils in public education and that each one receives at minimum 20 books a year, it works out that over 80 million books are being printed, a cost of around one billion riyals just for books. The least we can do is save them for reuse.�

Al-Ghamdi described care and respect for books as a �social duty�. �Pupils should hand back books at the end of the year just as they received them at the beginning,� he said.

One way of ensuring this happens, Al-Ghamdi suggests, is to only provide pupils with their examination results upon the presentation of their school materials �in good condition�, or making marks given for good behavior contingent on the return of books.

Some schools, if not saving used books, are attempting to put the materials to use.

�At my school we have a system to collect used books from pupils which are then taken by a paper recycling factory.� said one school principal.

�The government is working to provide new books to all school pupils, and that�s why used books are regarded as outdated.�

A group of pupils throwing their books on to a pile as they entered an examination hall this week were asked by Al-Madina why they did not keep hold of them. �We won�t be needing them again,� they replied. � SG__


The skill-testing question relates to whether educational publishers are owned by the state or private business enterprises. How shall I phrase this so that school principals are not implicated?

I won't. I'll just ask Mr Scot, re. his despair toward public education, something about parental duty to inculcate young people with a sense of civic responsibility or, as Al-Ghamdi puts it, "social duty."


Hoooo boy!:

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010112487882&archiveissuedate=24/11/2010

Jeddah courts see 20% rise in disobedience

ADNAN AL-SHABRAWI

JEDDAH: Judicial sources have said that the number of cases involving charges of �uqouq� � disobedience towards parents � at Jeddah�s District Court has gone up by 20 percent this year.

The sources said that on average each judge at the District Court and the Court of Minors hears seven cases per month � a total of 120 cases per month � in which parents charge their offspring with lack of obedience, verbal insults or showing physical aggression against parents.

�This is a very high figure,� the sources said, �and academics and civil society organizations should be studying the issue to find ways to put an end to it.�

One recent case involved a 65-year-old mother who accused her son of attempting to physically attack her. The man was held for 48 hours and given lashes and released after having pledged to �respect and obey� his mother. The judge warned him that should his mother present another complaint against him he would receive a more severe punishment.

� Okaz/Saudi Gazette __

[Cleopatra]

[scot47]

Their whole set of attitudes to books, book-learning, libraries etc is totally alien to us.

[Cleopatra]

[sheikher]

Saudis, libraries, reading for pleasure:

http://americanbedu.com/2009/06/12/saudi-arabia-and-the-joy-of-reading/

The blog's Comments section includes:

In my personal experience, and via my reading, yes there is a rich oral tradition of reciting stories, poetry, and teaching proverbs (often very rich local ones). A number of Arab intellectuals and writers have recounted how the stories they heard as a child, often from a grandmother, nourished their imaginations, cultivated their storytelling abilities, and inspired them (men and women) to aim for a high level of education and professional achievement. Poetry writing ( the most oral form of fiction) is more valued and more common than in the West, and even the local newspaper, as well as national ones, regularly publish readers� submitted poetry.


Saudis do read� and they don�t only read what they have to..�. They read newspapers everyday, for example. Saudis, however, do not read books, and I think part of the reason is the bad experience almost every Saudi person has had with books. Most Saudis were forced to memorize the subject learned in schools� which in turn made them dislike books. Saudis were never taught to love and enjoy books�

[Cleopatra]

[scot47]

Generally speaking Saudis do not read and they have no hobbies or interests. These two things differentiate them from "us". (well at least from some of "us". I have Western colleagues who never read anything and have no interest in anything outside their own egos)

[Cleopatra]

[cmp45]

[scot47]

The man was called "Chauvin" ( a fervent admirere of Bonaparte) and the ajective/substantice is "chauvinist". Cleopatra, you may go to the bottom of the class !

[Sheikh N Bake]

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

lck doesn't exist anymore and his latest attempt has been reported...

NCTBA