JEDDAH: As many as 50 secondary schools in different parts of the Kingdom have been selected to implement King Abdullah Project for General Education Development (Tatwir), which is expected to bring about a major facelift of the Kingdom's education system.
"The general plan for the project's implementation is based on long, medium and short-term strategies," said Naif Al-Roumi, director general of the project. "There will be two schools for boys and girls in each city," he told the Saudi Press Agency.
"We have conducted special training programs for school supervisors during the last school vacation," Al-Roumi said. "Meetings were held with senior teachers to explain their roles in the educational process."
The massive project, at a cost of nearly SR12 billion, aims to train more than 400,000 teachers in school management, educational supervision, computer science and self-development skills.
"The school leader or resident supervisor will be responsible for improving the efficiency of teachers," Al-Roumi said.
The government has allocated SR11.8 billion for the project: SR4.2 billion for improving the educational environment, SR3.58 billion for extra curricular activities, SR2.94 billion for training and development of teachers and SR980 million for curriculum development.
Education Minister Abdullah Al-Obaid said the project would help achieve overall development of students by increasing their knowledge as well as their physical and intellectual capabilities.
The new educational system is developed making use of the successful experiments of countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China, New Zealand, Finland, France, Ireland, Britain, Canada and the US.
Al-Roumi recently visited Al-Jouf on the occasion of the implementation of the project in the province. It has already been implemented at Al-Jazirah Secondary for Boys and the Eighth Secondary for Girls in Sakaka.
He said teachers and education administrators have shown a lot of enthusiasm on implementing the project. Al-Jouf Gov. Fahd bin Badr said his administration would extend all support for the success of the project in the region.
"Tatwir intends to apply modern technology in the educational process," the director said, adding that the selected schools would be provided modern technological facilities.
Students at Tatwir schools will be asked to make projects based on their subjects, after dividing them into groups. "This will help them to achieve knowledge and expertise," Al-Roumi said.
By P.K. Abdul Ghafour
© Arab News 2008
