I fully sympathize with the wish of Saudi students studying abroad on their own private expense to join the government scholarship program. However, I do not agree with them in their belief that this wish is a legitimate right that the Ministry of Education should fulfill. These students should realize that the ministry's approval for them to study abroad on their own expense is not a commitment on its part to include them in the scholarship program.
The ministry's approval is more or less just a signal that it will recognize their certificates after graduation and will equate them with the certificates of other students who have studied under the scholarship program.
In this connection, the scholarship program itself should be thoroughly reviewed. The aim of the program is not to send all the Saudi youth to study abroad. Rather it is to ensure that the country has specialization students who may best meet the demands and requirements of the labor market.
Our education policy should be revamped. We have to review our education system as it focuses on quantity instead of quality.
There is no country in the world where all its population are university graduates.
In the developed societies, the rate of graduates at vocational training centers and the technological colleges is 60 percent against 40 percent for university graduates.
Our society still looks at graduates of vocational and technological colleges and institutes to be less educated than university graduates. This society also still believes that the government jobs are the best jobs available in the market and that they are the sole guarantee for a better future.
This outlook has adversely affected the labor market, which is greatly suffering from the weak input of education.
The depletion of oil will one day create a new reality. This day will definitely come no matter how long it may take. Society should wake up and prepare itself for the day when there will be no oil, otherwise it may fall on its head.
The fall will be from a high altitude on a solid rock. In this case, neither our long cherished dreams not our scholarship program will do us any good. They will not heal our broken bones.
