Saudi Arabia Educational System
There
are several differences between the countries in their own rules. But, many of
us they do not know about those differences. Therefore, they might face
troubles when they moved to another place to live in especially the students.
Most of them they did not do researches to know how are the systems going; also
most of the students are not sure what they are going for and so on. Saudi
Arabia is a special country to go to school in. It is different from its
neighbors in the Middle East in addition to the West. It has own cultures,
rules, and the educational system, which is what will be discussed in this
paper. The educational system in Saudi Arabia has three stages everyone has to
through in during their time in school; elementary school stage, the middle stage,
and the high school stage.
The elementary
school stage is the longest stage for the students. It consists of six grades, each
of which takes a year to complete. In the first grade to the third, one in the
elementary the students taking around ten different subjects. They learn the
basics of mathematics, reading, and writing, pronunciation of letters with
dots, Islamic religion, and kids’ songs. After that, from fourth grade to the
sixth one their subjects starting to increase to be more professional and being
around eighteen subjects. Noting these are subjects all in Arabic language.
Lately, the government added the English language as a new subject for these
grades too.
The first three
grades and the second three have differences in the grading system. In the
beginning they are following a specific plan to take exams and how they grading
called “Continuous Assessment”. This assessment evaluates how a student
performs through the first three grades. In the second three grades, the grading
plan is changing to be midterms and finals exams. These exams are divided into
one midterm and one final in the first semester and the same thing for the
second semester from each year. The distribution of the points is divided into
15 points for each midterm, 30 points for each final, and 10 points for the
attendance, homework, and participation through whole the year.
Another difference
between the schools from America is that, both genders are separated in the
elementary school. The children are together in the kindergarten classroom but
this is the only time that this will occur throughout their schooling. This is
due to the religious aspect that goes along with being in Saudi Arabia. The
Islamic religion is a large part of the rules and laws that make up the country
and having males and females separated is one of the parts of the Quran. Also,
their ages should be six years old to enroll to the elementary school.
During the time in
elementary school, there tends to be two different types of children. The first
one who is enjoys that period of time while they are at school. These children like
to play with other kids and make friends from the time that the start
kindergarten. The second type of child is one who has a difficult time
adjusting to going to school. These children will usually cry a lot and not be
able to adjust well to their new environment. This makes it hard for the
teachers to make a good judgment on weather the child is fit to move onto other
grades because their emotions are not stable from being in a new environment
and away from what they are used to. Usually it happens in the first years of
elementary, which is what makes it hard for the teachers and their students,
but after an adjustment period, the children usually handle the classroom life
better.
In the Middle stages,
students are exciting and scared at the same time. For most, learning the English
language is terrifying, not only because it is something new to them, but also because
it is a whole new way of communicating. Also, the teachers are teaching this
subject most of them are not professional and they are Saudis. There is a big
different between Saudis’ accent and American Accent also, the English subject
we have is on the British way. I know that for some, when they go onto a
university later, they have difficulties because the English they learned was
not from someone who has a degree specific to teaching English as a second
language.
There are three
grades in the Middle stages they are called from first to the third. We do not
call them “ grades seventh to ninth”, as they do in America. There are also two different ways to study
during the middle years. One option is the more traditional way where students
attend school everyday with classmates and take the midterm tests and finals as
they did in the elementary years. The
other option is for the students to study from home and teach themselves,
weather it is from a parent, tutor, or another person. One common trait that
both of these ways share is that there is still a need to attend the finals at
the end of each semester from both kinds of students. There is no difference
between the finals these adolescents will take and the final is worth 50 points
each semester.
There are specific
ages for the regular students in the Middle school. They do not have to be
older than 18 years old. Otherwise, they should be on the independent students
system. In the Middle stage student are teenagers and they have a huge amount
of energy, everyone want to be the leader or as what they called “Big boss” by
the aggressive behaviors. The most suffering in the Middle school is from
Bullies and gays students. These bullies will bother other students who are
quiet and trying as much as they can to get good grades. Most of the fights
bullies start end with a harsh beating for no reason. One reason that bullies
like to start these fights is another student did not let him know what the
answer was for a question in the exam or homework, which is commonly known as “Cheaters.”
There is also
another issue that arises with the middle years of school. Homosexual males are
often harassed and bullied because the heterosexual males feel they are being
“looked at or checked out” by the gay students. There are a lot of arguments
and physical fights over these issues in the male schools and very few, if any,
in the female schools.
The high school
stage is the turning point in the student’s life. There are four more subjects to
bring the total to around twenty-two subjects. The new subjects they added are
physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. The classes that are taken
during the first year are the same for all students. However, there are two
difference “tracks” are starting from the second year and the track the student
is put on determines how their future will be. After the first year in high
school students must make a decision to follow a science or business major.
After choosing a path, the student will receive additional classes and
schooling to better fit what their remaining education will look like. Throughout
this period, the males and females continue to be separated and are taught in
separate schools.
High school regular
student’s ages should be as maximum 24 years old. Otherwise, there is the same
system here for independent students, even though the names for the grades are
called first through the third instead of tenth to the twelfth. In addition,
there are the same problems here in the high school with vandalism, bullies,
and gays students, as mentioned above. However, there are some students who have
their own cars and they do not have enough money for the insurance, so there is
very serious vandalism that can occur to some people’s vehicles. The physical
fighting also gets worse during this time period, especially in the male
schools, as they like to challenge one another to see who is the “tougher and
better” person. These fights have rarely lead them to kill each other because
some of the bullies carrying knives and other dangerous weapons inside the
school. On the other hand, some bullies will call their friends who are not
studying in school and have them assist in the fighting.
Many teachers are
trying to reduce these habits in school by standing up for the weaker student
and disciplining the students who are being bad. However, there are issues for
some teachers who try to help and do an honest job. Teachers frequently have to
take certain precautions with children who are in the middle and high school
ages because they can sometimes be the victims of bad situations. The most important precaution for teachers is
to go to school by an old car or getting good full coverage insurance. The mean
students who got bad grads in some subjects or fail in any course will
sometimes damage the teacher’s car. Some students will even take it a bit
farther with tire slashing, scratching the body of the cars, and sometimes they
will burn the car.
The government has
also stepped in more recent years to help with the repercussions that students
face when they misbehave in school. They also have added more curriculum for
students and have greatly increased the educational opportunities for students.
According to the Saudi Embassy website, “The Kingdom’s literacy rate is over 90
percent for men, and just over 70 percent for women. The literacy rate for
children under 15 is 89.2 percent for boys and 93.2 percent for girls.” This is
the result of the kingdom opening more schools and giving opportunities in
rural areas for education, where they were not available to most before. Also,
the one-on-one attention now given to students helps teachers to be able to
keep an eye on student while in their classrooms. The Embassies website also
stated “The Kingdom’s student-to-teacher ratio of 12.5 to 1 is one of the
lowest in the world”. Not only have
there been improvements made to the general educational system, but there have
also been improvements made at the university stage as well. There have been
many universities opened up since the late 1930’s and have given many people
opportunities to study higher levels of education. Also, there have been
scholarships granted to many students who have been sent worldwide to other
countries to obtain higher levels of education there.
Due to the maturity
of students, the university years have a lot less issues with disciple compared
to the earlier years of education. There are still a few issues with harassment
toward homosexuals and bullies but in a smaller amount. The classes in the university are still
separate for men in women with the exception when they are study in a medicine
major. Otherwise, no way to see each other in the same class because there are
separated universities too in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the university system is
the normal system that everyone knows. Most of the universities in Saudi Arabia
are free, just as the schooling and medical during the earlier years of
education. However, private colleges and schools are paid for. Also, if your
grades are low and your GPA goes down while you are in college, you then have
to pay for your schooling. This may be the reason for the decline in
misbehaving students because they want to do well in school and not pay money.
Saudi Arabia is a
special country to go to school in. It is different from its neighbors in the
Middle East in addition to the West. It has own cultures, rules, and
educational system. The educational system is one that is made up of rules from
the culture and religion of the country. Though there have been some issues
with the system in the past, it looks like there are improvement that are being
made.
References
Fernea, E. Warnock. (1995). Children
in the Muslim Middle East. Austin: University of Texas Press.
(1991). Education in Saudi Arabia. Washington, D.C.: Saudi Arabian
Cultural Mission in the United States of America.
Al-Rasheed, M. (2007). Contesting
the Saudi state: Islamic voices from a new generation.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Education. (n.d.). The Royal Embassy of
Saudi Arabia Homepage. Retrieved December 16, 2012, from
http://www.saudiembassy.net/about/country-information/education/
Background Educational System in Saudi
Arabia. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved December 16, 2012, from http://www.sacm.org/Education.aspx
Prokop, M. M. (2003). Saudi Arabia: The
politics of education. International Affairs, 79(1), 77-89.
Denman, B., & Hilal, K. (2011). From
barriers to bridges: An investigation on Saudi student mobility (2006-2009).
International Review Of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für
Erziehungswissenschaft, 57(3/4), 299-318. doi:10.1007/s11159-011-9221-0
