“If success does not require feet, but rather feet, then excellence and diligence are inseparable, so diligence is the cause of excellence, and excellence is distinguished by diligence.” With this wisdom firmly established on two firm feet, the Ministry of Education, under the leadership of Minister Dr. Hamad bin Muhammad Al Al-Sheikh, adopted its strategy, which reflects the size of what the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Prince Muhammad bin Salman have provided; To serve and nurture education.
And because Saudi education and all its outputs are monitored and followed up in all countries of the world, given the strategic and pivotal weight that Saudi Arabia plays in all global forums, the international reports issued confirmed a major shift in improving Saudi curricula and purifying its content. Among the most prominent of these reports, The report of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, the report of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, in addition to the international media, including the American Time magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times and others.
In the third episode, Okaz monitors the “effort of the last three years (36 months) for the Ministry of Education, and how the negative criticisms and proposals about the curricula were transformed into a positive path, and the world addresses them in an optimistic and stimulating language that recognizes the extent of continuous development and modernization.
Handling grant issues and making updates
The Ministry of Education is following up on all available reports issued by prominent international organizations around the world, and is still following them, and has taken the necessary measures to benefit from these reports to address the curricular issues raised and to make possible updates issued on them.
This resulted in finding a remarkable convergence between the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and a percentage of what was stated in international reports; This facilitated the treatment of many aspects noted on the curricula. Efforts continued to build and develop curricula according to criteria and standards to improve and develop curricula in a way that achieves the objectives of the Human Capacity Development Program and enhances the contribution to achieving Vision 2030 and responds to just, logical and acceptable proposals from educators and those interested in improving curricula. This episode deals with the outcomes of the curriculum development processes and their findings.
International Center for Religion and Diplomacy
In February of 2021, the US International Center for Religion and Diplomacy prepared an urgent and brief report after viewing a full copy of the new Saudi curriculum for 2020.
According to the statement of the CEO of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, the center has provided the center’s partners, sponsors of its activities and supporters with a copy of that report in order to obtain more support for the center’s efforts and programs with Saudi Arabia, which has already been achieved with the support of the program for preparing trainers – remotely – for the benefit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Saudi education and the amount of one million dollars.
The team of international organizations has been keen to document a copy of the report since its issuance, as it represents a pivotal shift and a major shift in the position of this organization regarding the Kingdom’s efforts to develop curricula and to recognize the size of the qualitative shift in the content of these curricula.
Reward a decade of effort
“After three years, the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy is pleased to report that the substantive reports submitted to the Saudi Ministry of Education for curriculum development appear to have been included in the 2020 curriculum,” said International Center for Religion and Diplomacy founder Dr. Douglas Johnston.
US Congress Liberties Committee
The annual update report issued by the Committee on International Religious Freedom in the US Congress for the end of 2021 marked a qualitative shift in its position on the Saudi school curricula.
It is clear from a review of this report that the radical and real shift in the official position of the US Congress, with regard to the Saudi curricula, began with its 2021 report on the books of the 2020 edition, which was developed by the Saudi Ministry of Education to correct the status of the 2019 edition books.
Big improvements and greater tolerance
A study issued in September 2021 found significant improvements in the content of Saudi textbooks, noting that the amendments came in the context of a larger wave towards greater tolerance, and many texts intolerant towards minorities and religious sects were softened, and the books no longer apply general judgments on societies. non-Muslim.
She noted that Saudi Arabia has made recent changes that can address aspects of religious freedoms for a long time, including addressing the highly problematic contents of textbooks and curricula.
The mental image of the development of the Saudi curricula
The impact of the newly issued studies on the curricula of 2020 from various international organizations has been great on those interested in the Saudi curricula in the international media. The press articles published in various international media came in a different way than it was before the actual start of the Saudi Ministry of Education in developing its curricula in an effective manner. And eye catching.
The intensity of many media outlets’ presentation of the Saudi curricula declined, and Time, The Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal topped the media in praising the progress achieved in the Saudi curricula, and European media quoted citations from reports that dealt with the Saudi curricula.
Educational reform and continuous evaluation
Numerous articles, reports and media investigations were issued to shed light on the development witnessed by the Saudi curricula, starting with the edition of Curriculum 2020, as these positive articles were issued mainly in the years 2020 and 2021.
There is a clear interest from the Ministry of Education at present in the quality of the educational process elements to improve its inputs by taking care of educational reform, continuous evaluation, and monitoring performance indicators to achieve the best possible educational outcomes. In addition, there is care for the teacher, his preparation programs, his work controls, his connection to his educational institution and his environment, and all kinds of enrichment, promotional and therapeutic activities.
UNESCO standards and reporting methodology
The reports followed a similar methodology in terms of survey and comprehensiveness, as the pages of the reports were distributed and categorized according to the academic level.
The reports varied in terms of the coverage framework of the concepts, and the reports of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education were unique in linking the observations to a globally agreed reference, which is the “UNESCO” standards, but these reports in general reached the same exact locations in most of their observations.
The international organizations and review team sensed a dominant feature on each report that is affected by the nature of the organization, and the reports of the Center for Religion and Diplomacy focused more on the values called for by the divine books.
The reports of the International Religious Freedom Committee came to reflect the features of the various reports in relation to the values sponsored by the Committee and which the countries of the world demand to respect.
The study of the issued reports showed a clear similarity between them, and a convergence on the issues referred to greatly. Hearings in the Congressional International Religious Freedom Committee relied on the reports of the ADL and ICRD organizations mainly until 2019, after which the impact of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in school education appeared, while other reports of organizations such as the Hudson Institute and Human Rights Watch HRW and others targeted the media in a way basic.
