Makkah

LAST week witnessed the issuance of two contradictory decisions. On Monday, the consultative Shoura Council rejected a proposal to introduce physical education at girls’ schools and colleges across the country and called for a detailed report explaining the gradual progress of sports in the Kingdom, including that of girls, supported by facts and figures.

The 150-member Shoura urged the General Sports Authority to intensify its community sports program for both men and women, covering all regions and cities of the country.

The next day, when newspapers published reports on the Shoura Council's rejection of the proposal, we saw Minister of Education Dr. Ahmed Al-Isa announcing a surprise decision to introduce physical education at girls’ schools beginning next academic year. He said the decision would be implemented gradually conforming to Shariah regulations and making use of available facilities at each school.

In the meantime, the minister said, efforts will be made to establish indoor stadiums and appoint qualified physical education instructors at girls’ schools.

The minister’s announcement caused astonishment in social and academic circles. Some people believed the authorities should have taken the public’s opinion, especially of women, before announcing the decision. Collecting public opinion before taking an important policy decision is a civilized way of doing things. If the majority backs the move it should be implemented.

The most surprising part of the decision was the introduction of PE gradually until all girls’ schools will have indoor stadiums or special halls and adequate number of qualified female instructors. This reminded me of an Arab proverb “La Tahatab Hatta Takhatab”, which means we should be well prepared before starting any venture.

In this context, the government should have constructed indoor stadiums at all girls’ schools before making the announcement.

Unfortunately, most schools are operating in rented buildings. I also don’t know how we can supply adequate number of trained women teachers at the moment. Are we going to recruit them from abroad or train them inside the country? According to my information, we don’t have a single trained woman PE teacher in the country because the PE major at our universities is open to boys only.

This decision shows that the Education Ministry does not have an idea of what is going on in our schools. It knows that most of our schools are operating in rented buildings and they will not be able to provide special halls for physical education because these schools lack space and do not have even prayer rooms. They will be able to introduce PE only when they move to tailor-made buildings.

We should know that some of these schools have been operating in rented buildings for more than 30 years and they don’t have empty land around them to establish indoor stadiums or halls for PE. I wonder how the ministry is going to introduce PE at these schools gradually.

I have been dreaming for our girl students to have a health culture as part of the curriculum including physical education because they are badly in need of such a culture to lose weight and save them from various diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

The ministry should learn lessons from the past and avoid taking hasty decisions. It should take the opinion of field experts having adequate knowledge and experience. In the past we introduced English language classes at primary schools and the result was disappointing. Students are moved to intermediate level after learning English for two years at primary level and they found hard to achieve proficiency in the language

I am afraid the ministry’s decision to introduce PE at girls’ schools without making any field study or consulting academic experts would have the same fate. The ministry should have circulated a questionnaire among experts to get their feedback, established the necessary infrastructure and trained a sufficient number of PE teachers before introducing the system to make it a big success.