The Ministry of Education is to start phasing in its new curricula for primary and intermediate public schools at the beginning of the next academic year this September. According to a report in Al-Watan Arabic daily on Tuesday, initial changes will only be introduced into the first and fourth grades of primary school and the first grade of intermediate, as the government seeks to “provide integrated, balanced, flexible and advanced educational curricula that meet the requirements of pupils, national development plans and the labor market”. Al-Watan, citing draft curricula plans, said that all boys' and girls' regional education administrations had received missives from the Deputy Minister of Education instructing them to “prepare for the new curricula, maintain contact with the relevant ministry departments, and join in the process of assessing the curricula development project in its first trial implementation”. “The comprehensive project for curricula development has been launched in response to the requirements of development and to cope with global growth in science and technology and economic and social fields, through high-quality improvements to education in general and particularly the curricula,” the plans said. Ayed Al-Qarni, head of Educational Programs and Projects and project supervisor and coordinator at Jeddah's Education Administration, told Al-Watan that the new curricula focused on “associating knowledge and practical life through the use of real-life examples”. “It also aims to furnish basic-education pupils with the abilities required by their scholarly and social lives, and to develop performance skills through the actual practice of activities,” Al-Qarni said. Al-Qarni said that the new curricula would be introduced into all school grades within two years. __
