The Ministry of Education has recommended that its administrative wings speed up the training of teachers in schools where English will be taught in the first stage with the beginning of the upcoming academic year. The Ministry said it would send assessment-skills booklets for the English-language curriculum in the first week of the next academic year. It has instructed its administrations to gradually begin teaching English in the fourth-year primary school as a basic subject and said every education administration will specify which schools are to begin implementing the first stage. There will be two classes per week and the Pack Back Gold series will be taught. The Ministry of Education has formed a specialist committee to study the series and evaluate the new series of English-language books to be taught in private schools. The General Administration for Curricula and Education Development has made it conditional to amend the subjects so they are approved within a month from the date of licensing provided the company is exporting these series and that conditions set by the general administration are taken into consideration. The Ministry of Education considered the intermediate- and secondary-school books as “enrichment and additional,” not basic, as the main emphasis is on the official textbooks. Ministry officials stressed the necessity to train male and female teachers to teach the approved series with emphasis on religious, cultural and Saudi values and principles, and amend and delete any information that contradicts Islamic teachings. __
