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Saudi to boost standards at English schools

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education hopes to classify English language centres based on the quality of services they provide, in a bid to raise standards. According to the Saudi Gazette schools will not face closure but be awarded stars based on the quality of service they provide.
January 17 2013
1 Min Read

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education hopes to classify English language centres based on the quality of services they provide, in a bid to raise standards. According to the Saudi Gazette schools will not face closure but be awarded stars based on the quality of service they provide.

This will cover the quality of teachers and the satisfaction level of students and staff. Administration, training, corporate social responsibility programmes and even the quality of a school’s facilities will also be assessed.

“Many school buildings are not properly equipped”

“Many [school] buildings have not been allocated for education or training purposes, and as such are not properly equipped,” said Basma Al-Sioufi, the supervisor of institutes and language centres in the Department of Education’s National and International Division for girls.

English proficiency is relatively low in Saudi Arabia – a problem given the surge in numbers studying abroad through the government-funded King Abdullah Scholarship Programme, which aims to up-skill the labour force.

The Institute of International Education, USA, reports that some 29% of Saudis studying in the US this year required English preparation before beginning their degrees – more than any other national group.

But a Department of Education study found standards were low across schools in the Kingdom, with some 75% of schools said to have problems, with many forced to rent office space to teach.

The country also struggles to hire native English teachers due to visa barriers. “We have Saudi teachers, but clients prefer native speakers,” a manager at a Jeddah language centre said. “We have discussed this problem with the ministry but visas have to be arranged by different government bodies.”

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