RIYADH — Minister of Education Dr. Hamad Al-Sheikh launched on Wednesday the 12th annual national program to search for talented students in various regions of the Kingdom. The program was initiated by the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), which is a non-profit endowment organization that aims to identify and nurture talented and gifted students in scientific fields. The launching ceremony was also attended by Acting Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Saad Al-Fuhaid, Mawhiba Secretary General Dr. Saud Al-Mathami, and Executive Director of the National Center for Measurement at the Education and Training Evaluation Commission Dr. Abdullah Al-Qati at Mawhiba headquarters here. The program covered students from the third grade to the second secondary education grades of public education. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Al-Mathami said that the national program is one of the pillars to discover the gifted, along with other measures of discovery such as talented competitions, talented kangaroo, and talented Bibra, all of which are measures that discover students with multiple mental abilities. He stressed the outcome of the past 11 years of the program that witnessed the nomination of more than 630,000 students, of whom more than 430,000 were tested, and more than 144,000 students qualified. The number of candidates and qualified hands in the program recorded a significant increase during the past 11 years. This data helped create an integrated national database encompassing detailed information on the best-gifted minds from all over the Kingdom. Inspired by global expertise and steered by national and international experts, Mawhiba strives to establish a national system for giftedness and creativity in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, it developed its strategic plan to foster giftedness, creativity, and innovation to actively contribute in the Kingdom's Vision 2030. This strategic plan is characterized by its comprehensiveness, succession, and focus in fostering those gifted and creative in the scientific and technical fields. It includes the development of a scientific methodology for the discovery and care of gifted students.
