School principals get more powers

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has decided to grant additional powers to principals of around 350,000 schools across the Kingdom to remove bureaucratic hurdles.

The number of powers the principals will enjoy will be 60 as against the previous 52, local media reported, quoting sources, on Thursday.
The new powers include increasing the school hours for any group of students by a maximum of one hour to implement an educational program. However, this will have to be done with the approval of the students and their parents, and notify the education department.
They will also be able to name some of the facilities in the schools after martyrs or other active members of society, but will have to follow the necessary procedures in this regard.
The principals will now have the right to combine the interval break hours according to the need, besides granting teaching or non-teaching staff three-day leave in case of death in their family and a day’s leave for male teachers in case his wife gives birth to a child.
One of the most important powers granted to principals is to allow them to transfer the items of the operational budget once during the academic year.
The MoE is currently working on adopting new extensive powers for school principals and directors of education offices across the regions of the country. As part of this, a committee, comprising 11 senior officials of the ministry and headed by Education Minister Ahmed Al-Issa, has been appointed.
The MoE has emphasized that the committee draws up a comprehensive development plan for the education departments. The plan should include six aspects relating to the administrative and educational work of the departments and new mechanisms to choose the leadership and professionally develop their skills.