Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH – The Council of Ministers Monday approved an independent Commission for the evaluation of general education. Headquartered in Riyadh and chaired by the governor, the Commission, which will have legal identity, will be administratively and financially independent. It will be linked to the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Education. But till the Council assumes its responsibilities, the Commission will be linked to the Prime Minister. The Commission is tasked with drafting a system of evaluation and guaranteeing the quality of general education. It will build codified national tests for each educational stage. It will have a board of directors comprising representatives from the Ministry of Education, National Commission for Evaluation and Academic Accreditation, National Center for Assessment at the Ministry of Higher Education and the Saudi Educational and Psychological Association. The board will also have four experts and a representative from the private sector. General education in the Kingdom consists of kindergarten, six years of primary school and three years each of intermediate and high school. After elementary and intermediate school, students can choose whether to attend a high school with programs in commerce, the arts and sciences, or a vocational school. In high school, students take comprehensive exams twice a year under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. The government continues to improve educational standards by offering quality training programs for teachers, improving standards for student evaluation, and increasing the use of educational technology. For example, in 2000 computer science was introduced at the secondary level. The administration of the educational system has also been improved by giving provincial school boards greater decision-making authority. These efforts are paying off. Not only has the number of Saudi schools increased dramatically, but so has the quality of education. The Kingdom's student-to-teacher ratio of 12.5 to 1 is one of the lowest in the world. The Cabinet chaired by Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, reviewed reports on the developments at the Arab, regional and international levels and reiterated the Kingdom's stand toward them. In a statement following the meeting, Dr Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, said the Cabinet highlighted the decision taken by the Arab League in its 138 session in which it condemned killings and violence against the Syrian people considering these massacres as crimes against humanity and sought immediate cessation of bloodshed.
