RIYADH — The annual school examinations are taking place smoothly in all regions of the Kingdom, according to press reports on Monday. A total of 2,670,000 girls and boys intermediate and secondary school students all over the Kingdom started their final exams on Sunday, which will continue for two weeks. Following the exams, the long summer vacation will begin and the school will reopen only after the Haj pilgrimage. The 47 departments of education in various parts of the country completed all necessary arrangements for the annual exercise. The departments made available enough human and material resources to create a favorable ambience for the examinations. The departments assigned supervisory committees to monitor the examination halls and asked the administrations of security and school health to make thorough follow-ups on the students. In Jeddah, more than 300,000 male and female students are sitting the exams in a comfortable and serene atmosphere. Abdullah Ahmed Al-Thaqafi, director of the department of education, and a number of his aides made field visits to a number of schools in Jeddah to follow up the preparations. About 300,000 students are sitting the exams in the Eastern Province while their number in Riyadh is about 600,000. Thaqafi said the close supervision of the exams would continue until they finish in about two weeks.
