Saudi Arabia will again undergo an educational experience remotely, following the announcement of our Ministry of Education to continue schooling with distance learning for seven weeks. The school year starts from Aug. 30, 2020, and education will continue remotely until further notice according to the Minister of Education Dr. Hamad Al-Sheikh.

We appreciate this move by the Ministry, as the priority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the health and safety of our sons and daughters. This welcome decision came as the idea of going back to school during these pandemic times is of concern with many parents reluctant to send their children back to school. Thankfully, the decision was made for distance learning, and that is what we wished for.

In the coming days the Ministry of Education is planning to distribute schoolbooks and will launch applications and provide laptops for some Saudi students in order to make this experience good and better with simple tools that is reasonable for all learners. I was wondering, if we could use these tools provided by Ministry of Education efficiently to reflect the experience of remote learning nicely.

The family too has to take an additional step to prepare students for the idea of virtual classes and to emphasize the new of way of learning today — technology and new educational methods to improve students’ engagement. The stress of a learning environment is something that should be taken into consideration when teaching via distance learning. Thus we have to consider the study place and be patient with our children to pass this stage with good impact on them and their teachers as well.

It is undeniable that the distance education experience, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, wasn’t easy for any of us — teachers, families or students. We weren’t prepared or trained for this new way of learning. Luckily, the transformation passed smoothly. I think, with the initial experience behind us, the Saudi distance learning will be more professional this time, as family and school will be sharing the same responsibility, it would be an environment for collaboration, academic skills, time management and effective communication.

We feel a little better about what to expect with distance learning, for we got the chance to ascertain and navigate through what works and what doesn’t work from the previous experience.

Saudi Arabia is welcoming distance education and scheduled time study that suits all educational level, especially for those first stages that need family’s follow up and a schedule that would enable to resume their classes in the afternoon to suit the parent’s duty hours.

There is something special about 2020, as the family took on the role as a real teacher with their children at home, and furthered the advance of remote education by harnessing technology in a tech-savvy community. With this new trend in teaching and learning, Saudi Arabia hopefully might offer officially distance learning as an “optional” mode in the future.

We wish the best of luck to all the students, teachers and parents, and pray that the pandemic passes as soon as possible in order for us to go back to school.

— The writer can be reached at @moionlynoor