“He who reads the past in a wrong way will see the present and the future in a more wrong and dangerous way. So we must know what happened; In order to avoid making mistakes, a person may pay the price of one mistake twice.
One of the mistakes for which we all paid a heavy price was allowing extremism and extremism to seep into minds, and to cover ourselves with the mantle of religiosity.
And so that future generations are not surprised that they will pay a heavy price, as a result of leniency with the misguided and deviant thought, which Saudi Arabia has suffered from for long periods of time, the Ministry of Education, led by Minister Dr. Ministry, and took upon itself the responsibility to defeat him forever.
During the years (2019, 2020, 2021), as part of a plan of painstaking and relentless work, the Ministry has steadily been able to address deficiencies in the school curricula, and uproot the roots of misguided thought, projections, and implicit messages planted by partisans, which are used by misguided groups to target the minds of the people of the country, while strengthening loyalty. For rational leadership and belonging to the Kingdom, preparing students for life and work and enabling them to acquire future skills.
Okaz, in the first episode of this file, reveals how the Ministry of Education's plan was built on addressing shortcomings in the curricula, combating hudud rulings, guardianship over curricula, extremism, and a decline in moderation in controversial jurisprudential ideas and rulings, and how its efforts resulted in reformulating the curricula in a way that enhances loyalty to the wise leadership. And belonging to the homeland, adding new curricula, creating specialized tracks, and adding e-learning, in the field of national identity curricula (Islamic studies, Arabic language, social studies), as well as in some other curricula, which shows the extent to which they achieve the aspirations of the leadership, and the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and the extent to which it meets the needs of students.
The Ministry focused on providing models of what has been achieved in the development of these curricula, monitoring aspects of development in numbers, and presenting some developmental models for comparison between previous curricula and current curricula, with a brief monitoring of Saudi curricula in international reports, and a summary of the most prominent future projects.
Deficiency treatment
and review foundations
In its report on the development of some curricula in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Education discussed in the first chapter the methodology that was adopted in developing the curricula, and the foundations of the review and development plan, which aimed to address the shortcomings in the curricula, and to eradicate the roots of deviant thought. This chapter presented the four axes that were the basis of the development plan, namely; The first axis: the protection of thought and the homeland, and work has been done to achieve this through three tracks: developing standards and criteria for reviewing school curricula, forming specialized review teams, and forming a team of international organizations.
As for the second axis: curriculum development, it was dealt with from two aspects. Developing study plans, developing curricula and the foundations on which they were relied upon. The third axis was devoted to shedding light on enabling digital transformation and the most prominent of what was done in this context, while the fourth axis monitored the most prominent efforts made in the field of organizing and governance of the center concerned with developing curricula in the Ministry of Education.
The second chapter presented examples of some developments and changes in numbers: the number of new books, the number of developed books, the number of books reviewed, the number of modifications made to books, the number of images and graphics that were added, the number of operations and procedures, in addition to the number of experts who participated in the development process. and review. As for the third chapter, it was full of vivid examples that illustrate the impact of what has been done on the curricula in terms of review and development, and show the difference between the previous curricula and the current curricula.
We emphasize that what is stated in this report does not cover all the development processes for all curricula carried out by the specialists. Rather, this report provides models to give an idea of the main features of the changes and amendments that amounted to more than 200,000 amendments. In this context, models were presented to include Texts on the kings of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, leaders, and national symbols, and models of correcting concepts, affirming the rights of the ruler (the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques), strengthening national belonging, developing the scientific material of the curricula, enhancing it with scientific skills, and supporting it with applications.
Warning against deviant groups
The third chapter presented models of excluding partisan and extremist symbols and projections, and warning against deviant groups, in addition to models of modifying and deleting what contradicts tolerance and coexistence or calls for atonement and hostility to other sects and religions. It is a cause of extremism and carrying the banner of extremism or atheism, and models have been provided to include what is related to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and enhances the national character. This was done through a number of mechanisms, foremost of which are: developing a guide for reviewing textbooks, creating curricula that keep pace with international and educational trends, and including applications that simulate international tests.
The fourth chapter presented the Saudi school curricula in international reports, by presenting some positive evidence and monitoring the international media's responses to the process of developing school curricula.
Curriculum development plan
The first axis: Thought and the homeland: The development plan dealt with this axis in three tracks:
1 – Developing standards and criteria for reviewing the school curricula according to parameters that guarantee the integrity of the content in all its elements, including images, graphics, maps and forms, and investing it to enhance loyalty to the leadership and belonging to the homeland, its history and symbols, and ensuring its suitability for the age group and keeping pace with developments in the field of education and enhancing students’ skills and knowledge.
2 – Formation of specialized review teams concerned with reviewing and revising textbooks from extremist and partisan statements and projections, etc., and highlighting the biographies of the kings of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their achievements; This is to consolidate loyalty to our rulers – may God protect them – and belonging to the homeland and pride in its history and symbols, and to reformulate the curricula of Islamic studies, to ensure that they are free from any suspicions of partisan groups or the promotion of stray and extremist ideas and contents.
3 – Formation of a team of international organizations, concerned with harmonizing the content of textbooks with the global trends approved by the policies and regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The second axis: Curriculum development
The development plan dealt with this topic through the development of study plans, and included:
1 – Increasing learning hours by converting the academic year into three semesters and increasing actual school days to 184 days in accordance with international standards; After it was less than 150 actual days, investing the school year optimally, and addressing the educational loss.
2- Updating study plans, including increasing the number of classes devoted to science, mathematics, digital technology, and language skills, while continuing to pay attention to national identity curricula, without exaggeration, tautology, or repetition that was completely unjustified in the past.
3- Launching the tracks system at the secondary level; To develop the secondary education system in accordance with international best practices; In an effort to prepare students for life and global competitiveness and to achieve the requirements of national development in Saudi Arabia in accordance with Vision 2030, the pathways system provides a distinguished educational model and includes specialized qualitative tracks that contribute to improving the outputs of secondary education and preparing students for the labor market according to developments and requirements of future professions, and also supports them in continuing their post-secondary education Providing qualitative knowledge that matches students' talents and abilities and motivates them to be creative and innovative.
The third axis: enabling transformation
The Corona pandemic came to announce that the education systems in the world had stopped developing, while there were suitable alternatives to overcome the challenges of dropping out of urban studies and relying on distance education, and the opportunities that accompanied this crisis were invested in the pace of development in the curricula to accelerate the modification, and benefit from the lessons associated with it, through during:
1 – Launching integrated and advanced electronic courses for the new curricula, which are standard courses provided in an interactive electronic format, aiming to enhance self-learning among male and female students and enable them to acquire technical skills.
2 – Adding e-learning activities through the Madrasati platform, in an effort to connect male and female students with technology and enable them to have a number of tools required for future jobs.
3- Launching the “Madrasati Qur’an” application, which provides the Qur’an material for male and female students on their smart devices. According to the approved curriculum.
4 – Producing (2,700) new elements of enriching digital content to diversify learning sources, and reviewing previous digital content in line with the updates made to the curricula.
5- Producing interactive books for all middle school curricula.
6 – Develop a plan to fully digitize textbooks over a period of three years.
The fourth axis: organization and governance
1- A specialized center for curriculum development was established after the abolition of the Curriculum Agency and the transfer of its powers to a higher committee. A main committee for study plans and curricula was formed under the chairmanship of the Minister of Education, and the membership of a number of ministry leaders and specialists to undertake the tasks of supervising the development of study plans and curricula for study and evaluation.
2 – Ensuring the governance of the processes of authoring, reviewing, and developing curricula in a way that guarantees defining the roles and responsibilities of the relevant authorities, while improving work procedures to ensure the achievement of the targeted achievements.
3 – Supporting the Curriculum Development Center with national competencies from Saudi universities and a number of distinguished employees of the Ministry; According to strict standards and determinants, conduct security surveys for them, and ensure the integrity of their intellectual orientations.
4 – A number of graduates of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program, specialists in curricula, have been attracted to work in the center.
5- Work on developing the skills of the center's employees in educational design and content formulation through international experts.
6 – An advisory board consisting of a number of international experts was formed to develop curricula for English, science, mathematics, arts and digital skills.
7 – A vision has been put in place to transform the Curriculum Development Center into a national center with an independent board of directors and membership of a number of government agencies. Such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Information and Culture, the Education and Training Evaluation Commission, State Security, the Human Rights Commission, and other bodies.
One year equals 10 years
In the past, the development of one book was considered an achievement for any educational system, and presenting a new subject for an entire class in the educational ladder took 3-5 years to be applied at the national level. However, with the support of the leadership, we find that the volume of development in one year is equivalent to what is accomplished in ten years in Any educational system.
From here, the axes of development and their dimensions were many, multiple, and unexpected in the education systems that are going through a stage of structural transformation. Therefore, we find that the 14 axes of development, the implementation of one of which was enough to take several years to come into existence.
Taher Al-Husari (Jeddah) @taher_ibrahim0
