Bin Tanbak Makkah After a long vacation that lasted for three months, students and teachers have returned to their schools, colleges and universities to start a new academic year. Schools and universities have welcomed their students providing them with necessary facilities to enhance their learning environment. Students represent more than 20 percent of the Kingdom's population. This is a big number by all standards. Every citizen is related to education in one way or another, including fathers, mothers, teachers and students. This means education is significant for every society and all social issues surround it. You can see people having hot discussions on education, its message and standard, its present condition and future prospects, not only in the beginning or end of the year but throughout the year. There is nothing to wonder, as people are concerned about the future of their children. I would say education is the be all and end all of a nation. The progress and efficiency of a society depend on its educational level and capabilities of its citizens. Educational qualification of citizens would be the main criteria of a society's progress and prosperity and the source of its productivity. As education is an important factor that determines the present and future of a society, experts have started discussing about it not in terms of quantity — the number of students, educational institutions and specializations — but in terms of methodology, efficiency, objectives, outcome and impact. Our country gives top priority to education and sends the largest number of students to schools and colleges. The government has established schools and specialized institutes and colleges all over the country. You will rarely find a student who was unable to get a seat for general education, which is the right of every citizen and it's not a courtesy. Now discussions focus on the final result of education. The most important result should be high quality education achieved by our students. Everybody knows that the standard of education in the Kingdom is not satisfactory as a large number of students pass out from schools without obtaining necessary knowledge and skills expected from that level of education. People have expressed their dissatisfaction over the knowledge and skills of students who have passed out from general and higher educational institutions. An evaluation of the system shows that in the move to expand educational institutions all over the country proper, attention was not given to standard and quality. The syllabus does not reflect the quality of education. Educationists have confirmed that many graduates of public education do not meet the standard set by the country. There is a big gap between the requirements of the labor market and the knowledge and skills acquired by students from public education. Simple tests conducted by employers have showed the poor performance of these graduates. There are at least three reasons for the poor academic performance of our students. The first reason is laxity in preparing an excellent curriculum and incomplete attempts for reforms. Second, laxity in determining the minimum qualification required for admission. Efforts should be made to guide students to the level of education they deserve based on their capabilities. The policy of granting promotion to all students — without considering whether they have passed the required exams or not — is the third reason. In order to change the present pathetic situation of our educational system we have to conduct annual exams and the questions for every subject should be in 100 marks. We should not consider class work as the main criteria for pass. This is the method followed by most Arab countries. It has been noticed that the marks given by teachers for class works do not reflect students' capabilities. These are some of the reasons that weaken education and our newspapers have published several articles and reports during the past 20 years highlighting the system's strong points and weaknesses. Our education officials know well the standard of our system and must take quick steps to improve it matching with global educational developments.
