Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education opened on Sunday the registration for the second phase of the Qualifying Program for Kindergarten Teachers for Musical Arts Training. The second phase aims to provide a comprehensive training program for about 17,000 female teachers, and support the readiness of those who have passed the first phase of the program, which is being held under the supervision of the Music Commission.

The program is being implemented under the umbrella of the Strategy for Developing Cultural Capabilities, launched by the two ministries in December 2022 within the existing partnership between them. Experts specialized in education and training at kindergarten phase will lead the training programs.

This step comes as a continuation of the success achieved by the first phase, which contributed to training more than 12,000 female teachers in government and private kindergarten schools. The concerned team will work to measure the impact of the training, and develop its current content to ensure the highest quality standards are achieved.

The program aims to improve the cognitive and performance skills of kindergarten teachers who would then organize musical activities and lessons for children, teaching them, among others, the characteristics of sound and related terminology. The teaching of music comes within the national framework for culture that the two ministries are working on, and is related to its inclusion and other arts in general education curricula, as it gradually begins from the kindergarten stages, and the lower primary education classes, and will include eventually all levels of school education.

Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah said earlier that education is the basis for building and developing cultural capabilities, following the launch of the first bachelor's program for cinema and theater, which coincided with the approval of the Council of Universities Affairs to establish the first college of arts.

In February 2024, the Ministry of Culture launched the first College of Arts at King Saud University in Riyadh, to create an educational and artistic environment that supports research and innovation, attract distinguished and talented students according to specific admission criteria, prepare technically, scientifically and professionally qualified graduates, and conduct specialized scientific research and studies.

The college was launched in a strategic partnership between the ministry and the university, in order to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, which is concerned with creativity and excellence in various artistic and cultural fields. The college includes three departments, such as Performing Arts, which offers study programs in the sciences of theater, cinema, and music, to meet the labor market's need for cultural professions with highly qualified and capable personnel, leading the future of the sector towards achieving ambitious national goals.

In December 2020, Prince Badr announced the licensing of the first two music institutes in the Kingdom. In September 2023, the House of Music Institute in Riyadh launched the first accredited diploma program of its kind in Saudi Arabia, to qualify graduates to work as music teachers in schools, in support of the cultural development strategy, and to develop amateurs academically so that they can transfer their knowledge to others as part of its education plan in various educational sectors.