Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General, in his capacity as Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for the King Abdullah Education Development Project, has assigned teams to visit countries with advanced education systems in order to formulate a comprehensive vision for the project. The move comes as a series of project initiatives are gradually applied to the Kingdom's educational system, Al-Riyadh daily said. Dr. Naif Al-Roomi, Director General of the Project, said the first initiative, involving 50 schools, has already been launched. Among this year's changes is the inclusion of sixth-grade students in the Constant Evaluation System that saw an end to final end-of-term examinations for elementary schools. Spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Dr. Abdul Aziz Bin Jarallah Al-Jarallah, said the Ministry had completed all preparations for the start of the academic year by Saturday, including teacher appointments, the provision of educational materials, and the completion of maintenance works. Al-Jarallah said that 11,654 female teachers had been nominated for appointment this year, as 7,729 male teachers had been appointed. Other remaining positions are to be officially filled by the civil service ministry within two weeks, he noted, adding that measures have been taken to provide cover until all appointments are completed. Meanwhile, the Education Ministry started its School Transportation project for girls (Al-Ameen) on Saturday, with the deployment of 3,823 buses to transport 388,924 students to schools free of charge. The scheme is functioning in the regions of Riyadh, Makkah, Qassim, Eastern Province, Northern Frontier and Madina. __
