Saudi Affairs
Last week I attended a dinner where I met a young man from the Ministry of Education. We had a long conversation in which the gentleman displayed considerable grace and forbearance toward me. This was because my comments and questions were a bit aggressive and even rude due to my deep concern about the situation of our educational system.
I asked him about the lousy state of our national curriculum, especially for the girls. He assured me that the curriculum for girls was now the same as the boys. I told him how thrilled I was that the girls would now suffer equally with the boys. He was rather annoyed with me for that. Then I asked whether there were any plans to overhaul the curriculum within my lifetime or that of my children. That annoyed him even more.
He hinted that part of the problem facing the ministry in its efforts to bring out a new curriculum is the resistance it faces from some of the clergy.
Here I would like to state my annoyance with this silly term “clergy” which is applied by Muslims to scholars, jurists and other experts in Islamic law. This is a term borrowed, unthinkingly, from the West, where it is used to describe members of a Christian church. This has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. It may be acceptable from a Westerner due to his ignorance of Islam, but for this term to be used by Muslims is ridiculous.
Anyway, I told him that this was not an acceptable excuse since the weakness of the curriculum encompasses areas that are totally secular such as mathematics and science.
In most advanced countries the task of upgrading a national curriculum is usually given to a large group of experts who are independent of the Ministry of Education. These experts are also not necessarily all educational experts, but also men and women who are widely respected in the fields of culture and art.
This is something we must do, and we must also ensure that the opinions of parents are taken into consideration, as well as those of captains of industry and finance. Our custom in this country of entrusting the development of a new national curriculum to a small group of bureaucrats within the Ministry of Education is a grave mistake. Government bureaucrats are by their nature enemies of change and regard it as a threat to their way of managing their affairs; they will fight it with everything they have.
My conversation with the young man continued until he suggested that we, the Manarat group of schools, design our own curriculum. Amazed, I asked: “Is this possible?” He said that a private Saudi school had already done that. I said: “You mean we can ignore the ministry’s own curriculum?” He said yes.
Of course, I was not born yesterday and I know very well that statements from government officials must be taken with a bag of salt. This is especially true when we know that some officials believe in the strategy of “Gotcha!” in their dealings with the private sector. This is where an official informs a businessman or company that his department will look favorably on a particular project. The company is then told that all it needs is to present a detailed plan for it to get approval.
So off they go and make all the necessary plans, in some instances at great cost to themselves. When they present their plans to the ministry they are refused and leave the building to loud jeers from the ministry officials and cries of “Gotcha!”
I for one refuse to provide entertainment to bored and frustrated public officials. I will wait until many other schools have developed new curricula and got them approved.
© Copyright 2003 by
ArtArabia.com
Top of Page
|
