Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi

On a hot, sunny day, a little boy was standing on a traffic island in the middle of a large road, waving to the racing cars to please stop so that he could cross the street. A large backpack was bending him down, and in his hands he had some books and notebooks.



He was not alone. As he finally crossed the street, other young boys were coming out of elementary schools on their way home. However, some were luckier. They had wheeled carry-on bags which they dragged over the street pavements.



I had just returned from the US after five years of postgraduate studies and my curiosity overcame me. I went to a cousin's house who happened to live in the same area and had a child in elementary school. Opening his son’s school bag, I was shocked at what I saw: Books, books, and more books. I wondered aloud why children would carry an entire library to school every day. My cousin laughed and showed me even more books. “They only carry the books that are required for the day,” he explained.



I went through the books and found that most of them were theoretical and linguistic. After reading  some of them, I felt so ignorant. Children of six to 12 years of age were being taught how to calculate the zakat (alms) of camels, and how to wash after sexual intercourse. They were required to memorize long and difficult to understand poems, some of which were thousands of years old. There were also books about our glorious Arab and Islamic history, and regional and world geography.



And what about science books? How many of the books dealt with chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and biology? There were a reasonable number of these, but they were lost in the ocean of Arabic literature and theoretical studies. 



Children are memorizing texts to pass exams, then forgetting all about it! Hardly any of them that I talked to loved their schools. They are dragged to school every day, and the school gates are locked to keep them from running away.



A friend in Al-Hamadanya District, Jeddah, complained: My daughter's school is a rented villa, which is used as an elementary school in the morning and as a middle school in the afternoon. It has no labs or libraries, no schoolyards or playgrounds. Inadequate school buildings are a great challenge facing our country's education system.



Sports for girls is another problem. It is still considered unacceptable for females to play sports. When private girls' schools were recently allowed to have physical exercise facilities and programs, many were upset. It is ironic that more than half a century ago, boys' and girls’ schools had music, art, photography and theater classes. They were taught French and extensive English. How is it that in the 21st century we are proceeding backwards?



I cannot help but compare the situation here with the way my children were taught in the US. There,  infotainment is used to make learning fun. Classrooms in grades 1-6 are colorful, decorated with the artwork of students, who sit around small tables, like in workshops. Libraries are Internet connected with the latest computers and equipment. Playgrounds are spacious and open.



Teachers choose books, magazines and articles that are designed to suit students’ needs. Labs and workshops help them learn skills. Trips and tours to everywhere from museums and factories to mountains and forests help balance, build and improve their class education and life experience.



Now that is what I call quality education. Education that children can use in their daily life to help them develop their understanding of the world and prepare them for a lifelong journey.



It is not about billions spent on buildings and teacher salaries. It is not about how much information we fill those young heads with. It is about how best to interest our children in education. It is about the practical use of information and training. It is about how and where children can utilize what they have learned in order to participate in developing their nation, improve their future and reach their stars.



To fight unemployment and poverty, we need better education. Our curriculum design should be aligned with job market needs. If there are many more graduates of Arabic and religious studies than there are jobs available in these fields, then we should focus on more needed areas, like computer science, accounting and marketing. It is also about time that we train our youth in manufacturing and services. There is nothing wrong with manual labor. How can we succeed in localizing millions of jobs if our people are not trained for them or prepared to accept them?

— Dr. Khaled Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at: Kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kbatarfi.