Fahd Al-Adeem
Makkah
Every year ministers make some pre-budget promises through statements, that by and large, remain the same. And people like me — who do not have deep knowledge — think it is not the statement of the minister but from the ministry. This is the same statement issued by the minister’s office every year. Even after the departure of the minister, the ministry would continue to issue the same statements.
I don’t want to use the language of figures, not because of my poor knowledge of economics but because of my desire to express a citizen’s view about the gap between the minister’s statement and the achievements by the end of the year, especially after every minister’s assertion that the government has allocated enough money for his ministry’s projects.
I have never heard a minister talking about the obstacles being faced by his ministry in executing his ideas and projects. They talk with the confidence of a strong believer but at the end of the year or end of his term the result would be unsatisfactory. I have not seen a clear program for a minister who handles services that directly affect citizens. They don’t have any plan to solve citizens’ problems.
When a minister tries to tackle one problem, another problem arises, then he leaves the first one to address the second one. This time the first problem snowballs needing immediate solution. In the meantime, a third or fourth problem arises. In the meantime, his term ends without solving any problem and he leaves the ministry by just giving some hollow promises.
Education Minister Dr. Ahmed Al-Eissa said the budget allocation for education would help his ministry make more achievements and achieve qualitative progress in all areas. Minister Al-Eissa knows the intertwined problems of the education sector from rented buildings to the crippled educational atmosphere and rickety curricula.
As an academic expert, the minister knows the fact the main mistake committed by previous ministers is their move to solve all problems in one time. This will lead to solving part of a problem and all the problems will remain as they were.
If the new minister decides to solve the problem of rented buildings and establish model schools this year and defer all other problems for the time being and set out a timeframe to solve them in the near future, then all of us would support him. This will also help us celebrate with him his achievements by the end of every year.
He will certainly succeed as the government has allocated enough money for the sector and he has all the necessary powers. If he fails — we hope and pray that it would not happen — we can at least say that he has done everything possible to achieve success.
