Horrific traffic accidents and a dangerous road led 140 female students in northern Makkah to refuse to go to school Wednesday for the fifth day in a row since the beginning of the academic year. Families of the students at Al-Rayyan Intermediate and Secondary School in Al-Nuzha District said their daughters would not go to school unless an urgent, radical solution is found for the problems, which include an increase in the traffic accident rate and a large number of trucks on the road adjacent to the school. Those ongoing realities pose physical and psychological hazards to the students, their families said. The girls' guardians said several relatives of students had been involved in accidents on the road, which has had an adverse impact on the girls' psychological condition, which has diminished their ability to do well in school. They pointed out that their daughters who graduated from universities and colleges are ready to teach female students free of charge if there is an insufficient number of women teachers – on the condition that an intermediate and secondary school is constructed in the district. The director general of Education Administration said authorities rejected the demands for an intermediate and secondary school because they did not conform with the conditions for establishing an intermediate and secondary school. He said excellent, secure means for transporting the female students from Al-Nuzha to Al-Rayyan District have been arranged.
