Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The Ministry of Education has devised four new strategies to reduce absenteeism among students after a private school was shut down for having an absence rate of 97 percent.

Deputy Minister Abdulrahman Al-Asmi approved the new strategies, which include permission to fire school principals at any time during the school year if the absence record was high without any improvement in sight.

The ministry will penalize private schools with low attendance rates by withdrawing annual financial grants. The ministry will also ban such schools from applying for tuition increases and from accepting new or transferred students. Schools with low attendance rate are also subject to being shut down and having their license revoked.

Thirdly, the ministry will publish the names of schools with low attendance rates on its website. Finally, students in these schools will have to sit external examinations in five core subjects.

The deputy minister has approved the closure of a private evening school south of Riyadh after its absence rate reached 97 percent. The principals of five schools, including one girls' secondary school in eastern Riyadh, were fired for high absenteeism. Students from these schools will undergo external examinations in core subjects as decided by the Central Education Committee. These schools are under threat of being shutdown if they do not improve the attendance rate.

The ministry had to take drastic measures after the attendance rates in a number of schools were alarming and unacceptable.