RIYADH — The Ministry of Education has taken over the administrative and academic supervision of the scientific institutes that were hitherto under Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University of Riyadh and the Islamic University of Madinah. The landmark move is expected to enable scores of scientific institutes all over the Kingdom to record excellent performance results with a more uniform, job-oriented and applied curricula following their switch over to the control of the Ministry of Education after a hiatus of 70 years. There are over 60 institutes under Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University and the Islamic University of Madinah where the students pursued intermediate and secondary levels of education during the six-year duration. The historic decision would help these scientific institutes scale ladders of academic excellence while preserving their legal identity with inclusion of the Shariah path within the secondary school stream, and planning is under way to make the Shariah path ideal for proper specializations in universities catering to the needs of the labor market. The decision confirms the competence of the Ministry of Education to supervise all sectors of public and private education, as well as to define the specializations of universities in postsecondary education. The decision stressed the importance of regularizing the educational status of students attending these institutes, stabilizing the status of employees, and preparing an executive plan to transfer them to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. It is noteworthy that the sixth session of the Shoura Council in 2015 had rejected a proposal made by the Council members — Atta Al-Subaiti, Amal Al-Shaman and Latifa Al-Shaalan, with a vote of 57 members against it. The proposal demanded to incorporate institutions and schools affiliated with government agencies to the Ministry of Education, including the scientific institutes affiliated to Imam Muhammad Bin Saud University and changing their curricula and teaching methods that remained untouched for about half a century. It is noteworthy that the scientific institutes came into being in the early 1370s AH (1950s) with the opening of the Scientific Institute in Riyadh, followed by the opening of the rest of the institutes whose numbers reached 36 in 1394 AH (1974-75) under the umbrella of the administration of the Riyadh Scientific Institute. Later they came under the General Administration of Colleges and Scientific Institutes, and then under the General Presidency of Colleges and Scientific Institutes. This was followed by the issuance of a royal decree approving the establishment of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University and approval of its statute, and considering it an independent institution to supervise these institutes. With the new academic year, these institutes have become part of the Kingdom's public education that is under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education. This enables students of these institutes to avoid duplication, have more focus on applied sciences than theoretical ones, ensure the quality of unified outputs, and achieve the goals and objectives of the Kingdom's Vision by meeting the needs of professional and vocational disciplines based on new technologies and suitable to the needs of the local employment market.
