JEDDAH — Owners of private and international schools met recently in Riyadh with Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil to discuss several issues that are threatening some of them with closure. The chairman of the national committee for private and international education at the Council of the Saudi Chambers also attended the meeting. Abeer Ghazzawi, owner of a private school, said the first issue discussed with the minister was the safety certificates issued by the Civil Defense. She said about 70 percent of the private schools do not have their own private buildings and are hosted in rented facilities. She said the Civil Defense refused to grant them safety certificates and asked them to correct their situation and install all safety measures before the beginning of the next academic year. Ghazzawi said the owners asked the minister to approach the Interior Ministry to ask the Civil Defense to consider the fact that they are using rented buildings and not to burden them with additional safety measures. She said the owners presented to the minister a new unified contract for teachers that would meet the requirements of the schools and the ministries of labor and education. The owners also asked the minister to allow them to hold graduation ceremonies so they could honor their graduates at the end of each academic year. Another issue discussed was the loans extended to the private kindergartens by the Saudi Credit Bank to employ women teachers who are holders of bachelor's degrees instead of secondary school certificates. The owners told the minister that a number of kindergartens were unable to repay their loans and as a result they closed down. The final topic concerned the transfer of students unable to pay their fees to other private schools. They said the students should not be allowed to join other private schools without having a clearance certificate to prove that they have paid all their dues. The owners told the ministers that students who cannot pay their fees might be transferred to government schools.
