Prince Saud Bin Abdulmohsen, Emir of Hail region, says education offered in the Kingdom does not match the huge sums of money being spent by the government. Despite the “generous spending by the state” domestic education was stuck in “traditional” modes resulting in “boredom” for students. “We need quality education that produces gifted scientists instead of memorizers who can hardly read and write,” Prince Saud was quoted Saturday as saying in a section of the Arabic press. He made the comments at an awards function of the Prince Muhammad Prize for Scientific Excellence here, Friday. “What prevents us from investing in our sons' minds? Is it our fear of change or are we remaining captive to others' guardianship? We need to free ourselves from the sensitivity of guardianship and stop [arguing] among ourselves,” Prince Saud said. He also criticized the current methods used to evaluate education in the country. He said there should be more focus on quality rather than quantity. School syllabi in the Kingdom still depend on memorization, he added. Prince Saud said that the development of education was being hampered by a futile struggle between various ideological forces in the country that have nothing to do with the sector. He added that the report issued by the National Center for Evaluation and the World Bank's classification of the Kingdom's education system were very disappointing. He said one-quarter of the government's budget is devoted to education with the government spending an average of SR19,600 per student a year. Prince Saud said that it was also worrying that the National Center for Evaluation said 94 percent of general education teachers were performing excellent jobs compared to five percent in a country like Singapore. “This must pose several questions.” He said new teaching methods are needed to meet the challenges of the modern world. He also urged the public to participate in developing quality education in the Kingdom.
