Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette Teachers and parents expressed their pleasure with the recent decision made by the Council of Ministers to establish an independent authority that will assess general education in public and private schools in the Kingdom. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, a number of parents and teachers said they had high hopes the new authority will ensure their sons and daughters have access to the best education. “The authority will enjoy complete financial and administrative independence. The authority would have a governor, who will be appointed by a royal decree. The authority will also have a separate annual budget,” read a part of the decision. The new authority will be tasked with improving the quality of education in Saudi schools, which in turn is expected to boost the national economy by increasing the input of qualified workers. The authority will have a number of tasks and assignments, including the assessment and accreditation of government and private schools. It will also formulate the parameters and efficiency tests required for granting licenses to employees in the education sector. Ahmed Abid, a father of three children studying in private schools, said the authority should not only assess private schools but also classify them according to the level of education they offer. “Every year we read hundreds of advertisements in which private schools claim to be the best and most ideal for our sons and daughters. These schools make bold claims and create a lot of hype but the truth is that none of their claims are backed by an official, accredited authority,” he said. “I hope the new authority can put an end to such publicity stunts and help parents finally choose the best schools for their children,” he added. A Saudi female teacher who has spent more than 13 years in the education field, expressed hope that the authority will be fair and employ women who can go to girls' schools and personally assess the performance of female teachers. “I hope they don't end up relying on the Ministry of Education to assess female teachers. That wouldn't be fair to the teachers as the authority will not be able to assess their performance correctly,” she said while adding that the school principals and other supervisors should be excluded from the assessment process to rule out any bias. Before the decision was issued, Deputy Minister of Education Nora Al-Fayez inspected a number of girls' schools in Jeddah and launched 72 projects for the construction of 126 new school buildings in accordance with high-quality standards. Al-Fayez said contracts had been signed with three companies to assess education in the Kingdom's kindergartens. “Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Science and Technology Center will be established in Jeddah and extend educational support services. The same center already exists in Riyadh,” she said. Abdullah Al-Thaqafi, director of the department of education in Jeddah, said new projects worth more than SR1 billion are expected to drastically reduce the practice of renting school buildings. “The opening of these projects is a positive step forward within the framework of a large plan to rid the ministry's dependence of rented school buildings,” he said while adding that the completed projects will reduce the rate of rented school buildings from 45 to 29 percent.
