Introduction
The education system in Saudi Arabia is well structured by the government that helps reduce the illiteracy level in the country. This begins from the time when Saudi Arabia became a state in 1932 in which the educational system was limited to a few where they had to go to the Islamic schools. Over the years, education has improved to a point where all students had to go to school from the primary level to secondary level for free. The education system in Saudi Arabia has separated both the men and female in which girls go to the female schools whereas the men go the male schools. The school administration system is in three parts and they are the education for the girls, the general education for the boys and the Islamic tradition for the boys or men in the country.
The Islamic education for men is used to prepare them for the religious clergy or the Ulema. The system of education in Saudi Arabia is under the ministry of education especially for boys while the girls’ education is under the general presidency for the girl’s education (Stalinsky, 2004). The ministry of higher education is in charge of the post secondary education while the general organization for technical education and vocational training are in charge of college education. Education starts with the kindergarten school, the primary school, and intermediate school, and secondary school, vocational and tertiary education.
Kindergarten or preschool
The children that attend preschool are of ages between 3 yrs to 5 yrs., Kindergarten is not a mandatory for children to attend because it is a parent’s wish whether their children should attend the classes at this level or not. Since preschool is not a requirement from the government there is little percentage of parents taking their children. The research that has been conducted only 100,714 children are the only ones attending kindergarten school in 2007. The male children are of a higher percentage than the female in schools with an estimation of 11.1 percent a total of 51,364 while the female was 10.4 percent a total of 49,350. The main purpose for this class is to prepare the student for their primary classes.
Primary education
Primary education is a mandatory for all children in Saudi Arabia. They start classes when they are 6 years in the first grade to 12 years in the sixth grade. Yearly the school has two semesters with a two week period in which they do their exams. The primary educations are all day schools for a period of six years. Research that has been conducted boys has a higher numbers compared to the girls with a percentage of 99 percent of the boys while the girls are 96.3 percent. The school curriculum taught are history, art education, Arabic, Islamic studies, science, English, mathematics, and the home economics or home science that is specifically taught in girl schools (Miller, 2011).
Intermediate school
The intermediate education is for a period of three years. The ages that are common for students in the intermediate classes are between 12 years to 15 years. Before one enters intermediate classes, they have to pass their 6th grade. The curriculum is the same as that of primary school. According to statistics 95.9 percent of children enrolled in school in 2007 with an estimated of 1,144,548 students. The classes have two semesters which contain 15 weeks of classes with a period of 45 minutes per class.
Secondary education
Secondary education is the last part of the general education, which lasts for a period of three years. The estimated ages of students in secondary schools are 15 to 18 years. When they finish the intermediate education, the students have a choice between the general and the special education systems. The technical education is where the students get an opportunity to train in the fields such as industry and commerce for work purposes. This education goes on for a period of 3 years. An estimation of the number of students attending high school is 1,013,074 less compared to those who went to primary school in 2007. The percentage was 91 percent for all students. The number of boys was 541,849 while that of the females was 46,751.
The curriculum in the first year is compulsory for all students and thus they change in the final two years in which they choose from literally or scientific education. The scientific education the or students who have a minimum of 60 percent of all subjects (Stalinsky, 2004). While in the literally the students with less than 60 percent of all subjects take it. The general subjects in the school is mathematics, chemistry, biology, geography, English, history, physical education mostly for the boy schools, Arabic and home economics for the girl schools.
Higher education
Schools of social science and humanities, students last for a period of four years. While in the schools of pharmacy, medicine and engineering the students learn for a period six to five years. The vocational education is useful because the government has made it possible by having over 3million jobs for people who are vocationally trained. The vocational trained individuals will start their own business thus earning the government revenue and also creating jobs. The vocational training consists of metal processing, automotive components and manufacturing.
Tertiary education
In Saudi Arabia, there are over 24 government universities. Students who have passed on their secondary education the government will reward them with bursaries so that they can study abroad. These bursaries are usually 5000 yearly for the best students. These programs began in 2005 when king Abdallah started a program in the government that will enable students to go to abroad universities. The bursaries cater for the student accommodations in western countries as well as their fees (Stalinsky, 2004). The first university is King Saud University that was formed in 1957 that teaches religion.
According to statistics, over 40,000 students attend these universities. The universities also offer college-based departments such diploma even though there are privately owned colleges, community colleges and girls' colleges. According to the research that has been conducted in the year, 2006 the number of students attending in higher education like the bachelor degree is 528,146. The students doing their masters were 9,768 while the students who were taking the diplomas and higher diploma were over 95,000.
Girls and women's education
According to the research that has been conducted, the number of girls enrolled in schools has increased tremendously compared to 1960s. There is restriction for girls in higher education in fields such as engineering, architecture, law and journalism. The number of girls in higher education has increased by 58 percent.Research shows that more girls in Saudi are getting higher educations compared to other Muslim nation (Jabaji, 2008). This is because the government has taken a keen eye on the education of the girl child. This has made the government to formulate more schools for girls. It is also witnessed that more girls are enrolling to be educators or teachers thus has led to Saudi Arabia having thousands of female professors in all parts of the country. The first all women’s university is Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University that consists of 32 campuses throughout the Riyadh region.
Summary
The education system in Saudi Arabia is controlled by the government. The system consists of the preschool, primary, intermediate, secondary and higher education. Over the years the number of students has increased immensely since 1960s. This also includes the number of girls going to school. Research shows that the primary school goers are high compared to the other institution. The education systems also cater for children who have special needs thus will be able to get knowledge that will help them acquire good jobs. In higher education there are over 24 universities and colleges that are privately owned. The government made it easy for students who are performing well to get bursaries that will enable them to go and study abroad in areas such as England, Canada or USA. The girl child in Saudi Arabia has the luxury of getting education compared to any Arab nation.
Work cited
Education in Saudi Arabia.
Education System in Saudi Arabia. 2012.
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN SAUDI ARABIA. 2006.
Jabaji, R. ""Saudi Arabia's First Women's University" ." PBS (October 31, 2008).
Miller, D.E. ""Saudi Arabia opens world's largest women's university"." Jerusalem Post (May 17, 2011).
Stalinsky, Steven. "Saudi Arabia's Education System." Islam disputes observing media (2004).
