Minister of Education Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al Al-Sheikh, in the presence of Minister of Commerce and Acting Minister of Media Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, and Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha, inspected the Virtual School Content Production Center in Riyadh that serves distantly 6 million students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the period of the schools suspension. At the outset of the inspection tour, the ministers were briefed on the services of the virtual school through a documentary film that tells the story of distance education in the public education, the educational operations that take place by the efforts of teachers and supervisors in preparing the educational content for the daily lessons according to the study plan, and transferring them directly through 20 channels of IEN educational channels. They were also briefed on the statistics and numbers of distance education in public and university education since the decision of schools suspension. At the end of the inspection tour, the Minister of Education explained that after 10 hours of the announcement of the schools suspension, the Ministry shifted from an educational system dependent on the attendance of students to another educational system dependent on the option of distance education, stressing that this transformation was not easy, but the Ministry was able to serve 6 million students in the public education within hours, and about 1 million and 600,000 students in the universities sector through technical platforms and programs. The Acting Minister of Media praised the great efforts exerted by those responsible for the virtual school with the support and guidance of the Minister of Education, as well as the efforts of teachers and their dedication to deliver the education message without stopping, stressing the role of every mother and father in supporting their sons and daughters to continue their studies distantly. He affirmed that the Coronavirus crisis has created a united team capable of achieving an educational achievement that we are proud of. Then, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology said that the digital infrastructure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is solid today with the support and directives of the leadership, adding that the rate of internet access has exceeded 94 percent. He affirmed that these numbers come with a support of a network of optical fibers, which reaches today to 3,500,000 houses.
