Riyadh Administrative Court has dismissed a case filed against the Ministry of Education by a group of external students who earned their bachelor's degrees. The students filed a lawsuit against the ministry after it refused to hire them on the basis that they were external students and did not attend the institutions where they got their degrees. The ministry told them that priority was given to those students who attended classes as full-timers. While dismissing the case, the judge said the students should have first written a grievance letter to the ministry and then waited for up to a month for a reply after which they could take their case up with the Administrative Court. The students, on their part, said they had already sent a grievance letter to the ministry but had not received a reply. Saud Al-Harbi, one of the students, said the ministry should explain why it did not accept their academic certificates despite the fact that the certificates are recognized internationally. “We sat for matriculation tests and other necessary tests and aced them. We're as qualified as students who attended any academic institution,” said Al-Harbi. By dismissing the case, the court followed the same procedure it did with similar cases filed previously, Al-Harbi said. “The proceedings of the previous cases are still going on and no final verdict has been rendered. We want justice to prevail. This is what we want. We've been deprived of our lawful rights.” Khalid Al-Kabkabi, another student, asked why the ministry rejected their employment applications. Al-Kabkabi said he had paid a large sum of money to complete his studies and finish his bachelor's degree. “My ambitions and hopes were dashed by the ministry's decision. I stayed up many nights studying to get this degree. If I had known for one second that things would end up this way, I wouldn't have paid such high tuition fees.” “It has happened before. The ministry appointed some external students in the past who were contracted to teach at rural schools and later were given jobs as school teachers. Why did they refuse to appoint us? I hope the court can extract an answer to this question from the ministry.” External students are people whose studies are guided by a university or college but they do not attend the institution or live on the premises. Students communicate with their teachers by correspondence rather than face to face. __
