The Minister of Higher Education has rebuffed the suggestion of King Saudi University's president that lecturers will have to earn professional licenses to teach at the university. “Giving ideas is a good thing, however, ideas are discussed and only the good and beneficial ones are considered. I think that many advanced countries, which are way ahead of us in that field, have rejected such methods, then why would we implement it in our universities,” said Dr. Khaled Bin Muhammad Al-Anqari, Minister of Higher Education, while responding to a question at the fourth Teacher Preparation Conference held on behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques at Umm Al-Qura University here, according to a report published in Al-Watan newspaper. Al-Anqari said a committee from the ministries of Education and Higher Education will follow up the recommendations of the ongoing conference. The conference is expected to formulate a proper mechanism for training and qualifying teachers. As for setting up universities for women in different regions of the country, the minister said, it depends on assessment results of Princess Noura University in Riyadh. Based on the results, a proper decision will be taken, he said, adding that girls' education in the Kingdom “is going well.” He said that the foreign scholarship program is based on a plan drafted in coordination with the ministries of Economy and Planning, Finance, and Civil Service to determine the need and specialties required in the Kingdom. The ministries have determined the numbers and majors they need in order to provide the graduates with jobs when they return. On extremism, Dr. Bakri Bin Matouq Assass, Director of Umm Al-Qura University, said in a speech that all types of extremism, whether it be religious extremism on the right or extremism due to being distant from the religion on the left, must be shunned. Extremism is one of the greatest reasons that would make a teacher “lose himself”, he added.
