1,300 faltering school contracts withdrawn

The new school year began on Sunday with nearly 6 million children returning to their classes all over the Kingdom after the summer break.

Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil joined the celebrations marking the beginning of 2015-16 academic year launching two new school buildings in Riyadh.

Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency, the minister said as many as 1,300 faltering school projects were withdrawn from contractors who failed to deliver on time. Dakhil inaugurated the new building of Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdadi Intermediate School and Khaled Bin Zaid Elementary School in Al-Qadisiyah district of Riyadh.

“Nearly 1,000 school projects were delayed by about nine years and some 300 others stalled for four years. All of them have been withdrawn from their contractors,” the minister said.

Dakhil was accompanied by Deputy Minister of Health Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Duwailie and a number of senior officials from his ministry.

“The ministry has to rent 1,300 buildings for schools within its drive to provide model facilities for students to study in a conducive atmosphere,” he said.

There are 35,488 boys and girls schools with 5,549,937 students at all levels all over the Kingdom. The ministry employs 527,030 male and female teachers.

Dakhil said the Kingdom, under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, is giving utmost concern to education and is determined that the education process will not cease under any circumstances, especially in the southern border regions.

“The ministry is making serious efforts to take education to students wherever they may be and not the vice versa,” he said.

Dakhil said the ministry provided large quantities of electronic textbooks to ensure the continuity of education in the southern regions.

He said more than 31,000 male and female students would be attending the schools in the southern cities of Jazan, Najran, Asir and Sarat Obaid.

“We have upgraded the Internet reception in some parts of the Kingdom and have made arrangements to transmit lessons via 12 satellite channels on Arabsat,” he said.

The minister said the satellite channels would also be available on the Internet for anyone to watch inside or outside the Kingdom. “This step will add to the Arabic content on the Internet,” he added.

The minister, on the other hand, revealed more than 2,000 kindergartens were opened in various parts of the Kingdom to receive more than 18,000 children.

“The nurseries will be manned by about 2,709 women teachers, 2,185 administrators and 1,355 workers,” he added.

Dakhil said the ministry was also giving special attention to entertainment in schools through cultural, literary and artistic activities.

The deputy health minister, on his part, said his ministry prepared a road map to extend preventative and curative healthcare to schoolchildren.