All-out efforts to radically reform education stressed

The four-day symposium, the first of its kind organized by the Ministry of Education, will discuss in depth how to pursue excellence and bring quality education to Saudi institutions.
This event, entitled The First International Conference of TQM in K-12 Education, will help to work out educational plans and policies with “quality initiatives drawn from the best international experiences,” said Prince Faisal in a statement. He said the event would also find out ways and means for restructuring education, especially primary and secondary (K-12) segment, with added stress on quality and excellence.
“The conference results from the royal directives that confirm the importance the government attaches to quality in education sector,” said the minister.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by a large number of Saudi and foreign officials, including 30 top-notch educational experts and research scholars from different countries.
Malaysian Prime Minister’s wife Rosmah Mansor and Canada’s Deputy Minister of Education Alexander MacDonald will speak at the symposium on Sunday.
The opening session was chaired by Communications and Information Technology Commission Gov. Abdulrahman Bin Ahmad Al-Jaafri. On the need to improve quality of education, Al-Jaafri said that transforming the Kingdom’s educational system into a high-quality internationally competitive system was a top national priority. The first day of the symposium had three sessions that presented the best international practices recognized by specialized organizations like the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union. The conference also looked at the education in advanced countries and its high quality during the opening session.
The SR150 billion education budget will contribute to programs aimed at reforming the current education system, building 1,200 new schools and continuing with the construction of 3,112 schools, universities and funding overseas degree and training programs for Saudi students.
In the current five-year plan, over SR700 billion have been earmarked toward transforming the Kingdom’s educational system into one that produces quality students that can compete locally and internationally.