Nine officials of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education, who are on a tour of the United States, visited Weisenborn Middle School on Thursday to view how teachers use science materials from McGraw-Hill Education. The visitors were accompanied by Viken Hovsepian, who is a senior national math consultant with McGraw-Hill as well as an author of the companies' Pre-K to 12 math curriculum. He is also a professor of mathematics in California. The Saudi visitors are Khalid Al-Greashi; Othman Al-Zamil (general directorate of curricula); Abdulaziz Al-Salem; Shakir Al-Shareef (deputy director of math/science project); Fahd Al-Harbi; Dr. Fayez Al-Adhadh (general directorate of technology); Faizah Jamjoom; Anaheed Dader and Mohammad Al-Thwiany. In information made available to Saudi Gazette here on Friday, Hovsepian explained that the science curriculum used by the district and published by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Glencoe/McGraw-Hill has been selected to be taught in the Kingdom, impacting approximately seven million students. He added that eventually, this curriculum could impact the entire Middle East. Hovsepian said that all of the Saudi visitors have key positions in shaping curricula in Saudi Arabia for students from kindergarten through high school. “Our math and science, K-12 books, are being translated (localized) for the region under a joint venture with Obeikan, a Saudi Educational firm,” he said. “We're much honored that the Ministry of Education has chosen McGraw-Hill educational materials for the entire Kingdom. They wanted to visit the United States and see how all stakeholders are interacting with McGraw-Hill's state-of-art print and digital educational programs. We're very thankful to the school district for allowing this to happen,” he added. Hovsepian said education in the Kingdom is moving toward a more student-centered approach by using strategies developed by McGraw-Hill to get the students more engaged in the subject area.
