JEDDAH — In today’s digital age, there is a generally- held belief achieving a high level of success was only meant for people with special or extraordinary talents. This awareness led to an assertion that education holds the key to achieve the lofty goal, and should begin at the schools.

In Saudi Arabia, with various international schools to choose from, Waad Academy stands out with its holistic approach to education that blends international study with thematic Islamic guidance.

Radwan Chahrouk, Head of the Academic Department at Waad Academy, said that the Academy’s syllabus is delivered by a world-class faculty in a cutting-edge learning environment. It has been designed to offer a complete education by nurturing every aspect of a learner’s heart, mind and body in order to achieve true success.

He said that international schools generally adopt a specific international curriculum and aim to deliver it with high fidelity. “We at Waad Academy believe that although international curricula are extremely valuable from an academic perspective, yet education should arise from the success of its context and build on that.”

He explained that “as such, we blend the renowned Cambridge International curriculum with an array of excellent local subject. This is further supplemented with a Waad-specific “Tarbiyah” program, physical education and 21st century skills. These outstanding programs address the triad of heart-mind-body in a balanced manner, thereby providing a holistic approach of education aimed at developing a generation of successful learners, sincere believers, and responsible leaders.”

Holistic education focuses on preparing students to meet any challenges they may face in life and in their academic career.

Education with a holistic perspective is concerned with the development of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. It seeks to engage students in the teaching/learning process and encourages personal and collective responsibility.

Moreover, the holistic approach develops students to be critical, confident and independent; aims to make learning a process of self-improvement that explicitly recognizes the self and the social context of learning and teaching, and recognizing the needs of the individual learner in the interaction.

In an interview, when asked to reveal the advantages of having a big, well serviced campus, Chahrouk said bigger is, usually, better. A big campus allows for an array of facilities to meet the requirements of education in the 21st century.

”If we aim to diversify our programs to cater for the diverse potential and aspirations of our learners, we should have the space to accommodate that,” he noted.

Furthermore, when students feel that their facilities are well-serviced and taken care of, this establishes in them a sense of belonging, and hence a sense of ownership. The campus becomes a source of pride for our learners and paves the way for their academic progress and holistic growth. Finally, those same students will move on to huge universities once they graduate. Being used to a large campus helps them adapt easily to university life and reduces that fear factor at the onset of their higher education.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

• What does “Heart, Mind and Body” stand for?

This motto symbolizes our statement of intent. In this Age of Information, where the world changes at such a high pace, and competition is arising in all fields of life, we tend to get carried away within the folds of said competition towards economic growth. This has led to a noteworthy disregard of certain aspects of our humanity, specifically the heart. Life has a greater purpose than mere economic prosperity or professional growth, and it is from this conviction that we offer a method of education to foster a holistic and balanced development of our learners. Our Lord has created for a greater purpose, and thus we draw from our Islamic principles the means of fulfilling this purpose and connecting with fellow humans, hence the heart. Our world is undergoing the greatest revolution it has ever encountered, and our learners need to be flexible to deal with change, resilient to overcome challenges, and creative to provide solutions and drive progress of their societies, and this is the Mind aspect. For us to accomplish this, the “machine” to perform such daunting tasks needs to be “well-oiled” and regularly maintained, and thus we take great care of the physical development of our learners to grow into healthy and proactive individuals in their communities.

• Why Cambridge and not any other certificate?

As previously stated, the job market is becoming highly demanding. Therefore only those individuals who have an edge with respect to their peers will be able to make the cut. Higher education in itself has thus become highly demanding, and the best universities in the world are upping their game by raising their admission requirements. This being said, universities worldwide recognize Cambridge qualifications and offer admission to Cambridge learners, with the realization that Cambridge curricula provide worthwhile and relevant education. Universities are also well aware of the high demands and lofty standards which Cambridge curricula hold their learners accountable for. Cambridge curricula provide learners with high resilience to meet future challenges, a wide array of skills to choose any possible future career, with the flexibility to select specific courses and sit for their exams over a broad range of time. Towards that, Cambridge also provide full support to schools, teachers, and learners in their journey with Cambridge, and their resources are readily available and easily accessible.

• How do you prepare Waad’s students for future jobs?

Our outstanding team of learning guides and education leaders design and implement a variety of programs to prepare students for future life. Such programs include, but are not restricted to, the following:

1) The young entrepreneurship program aims at developing their entrepreneurial skills.

2) Design 4 Change program to hone their problem-solving abilities.

3) Leader in Me program for developing young leaders

4) EQ (Emotional Intelligence) program, and EQ in itself is becoming as important as IQ in determining the readiness of individuals for careers.

All these programs are done in partnership with certified service providers; they are embedded within the school model and are prioritized in our learners’ education.