By Khaled Al-Solaiman
Okaz
I AGREE with the minister of education who said the Saudi teacher in government schools today is part of the educational problem but I politely beg the question: Who made the teacher part of the problem and not part of the solution?
Who is in charge of the educational climate and the school environment? Who made the teacher busy running after his or her own personal rights instead of dedicating time to their job responsibilities?
Who burdened the teachers with marginal tasks that waste their energies, instead of enabling them to do their educational assignments?
Who made the men and women teachers busy read the ministry’s circulars, instead of focusing on the syllabus?
Who has treated the teacher for decades as a hired helping hand instead of a partner?
I beg your pardon Mr. Minister: With due respect, I would say the problem of the Saudi teacher was not born outside the womb of the ministry.
They were delivered naturally by the ministry, fed by it and grew up under its bosom.
Now the minister wants to detach himself from the problem, as if they were born to unknown fathers and mothers.
You can shed your responsibility for the problem as many of our senior officials do, but you can never deny that this teacher, whom you are criticizing, was born in the Saudi Ministry of Education itself and nowhere else.
As for praising the international schools and describing their output as distinguished, it could be accepted if the minister had pointed out to a particular name.
The generalization of his praising lacks objectivity and is solid evidence that the ministry is not aware of the exact situation of these schools nor their criteria for appointing teachers who are mostly expatriate housewives or those who had no jobs in their own countries.
Many of the schools that have added the word “international” to their names are only after making profits.
