MOE and the careless student

Saeed Al-Soraihi Okaz THE buildings, the boy and girl students, the male and female teachers, the cafeterias and press statements of the officials of the Education Ministry alone will not translate the concept of school on the ground. There will be no meaning for the school if the text books have not reached many of the educational institutions yet. The arrival of text books in schools is still suspended and tied up to new dates often told to us by the ministry’s officials who are very fond of making empty statements. These officials kept speaking to us repeatedly about the completion of all preparations and arrangements for a “serious” start of the new academic year. We and our boy and girl students have come to realize that the ministry’s officials are not “serious” when they speak bout a “serious” beginning of the school year. A few days back, this very newspaper published a report attributing the delay in printing and distribution of text books to a dispute between the ministry and the printers. This raises a legitimate question: Why is the ministry still depending on commercial presses to print its text books? The cost the ministry incurred on printing the text books during the past years is enough for it to set up its own printing press. The second question is: where has the ministry been during the school summer vacation? The vacation was long enough for the ministry to carefully follow up the printing of its text books. Why has the ministry not solved the dispute with the printers to ensure a “serious” start of the new academic year in which the students would have found their text books waiting for them in the schools? The last question is: when the ministry finds excuses for itself in not delivering text books to schools on time what will be the difference between it and the lazy students who always find lame excuses for not answering questions or doing their homework? When a teacher asks a careless student why has he/she not done the homework, the student will have all the right to say: Sir, I am like the Education Ministry. I overslept and did not notice the lapse of time during which I should have done my homework. Who will blame the students when they act like their ministry?