TAIF: The Ministry of Education has approved a new system for the classification of private secondary schools into three groups to regulate final examinations and bring results in line with government-run schools. The move bars private secondary schools designated as in Class 3 in the new classification from setting final examination questions in subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, physics and English, and grammar subjects in Shariah and Literary Sciences. Instead it sets up a joint effort between public and private schools selected by the Education Administration to set the questions, produce unified timetables, and organize the production of questions and example answers in coordination with the departments of Supervision and Examinations, Admissions and Education in each sector. Schools classified as Class 2 under the new system will be provided with example examination questions by the boys' and girls' education administrations for the subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry and English, while they are permitted to set questions and grade examinations for the current year's second semester and the first semester of the coming year. Class 1 schools in the new system are permitted by the Ministry of Education to set their own questions and grade examinations for a period of two years beginning from the second semester of the current academic year. The ministry said that daily monitoring of examinations would be steeped up at all private and public schools.
