Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- Within the next two weeks, the Arab Bureau of Education for The Gulf States will announce a development plan that will incorporate subjects that deal with nuclear technology into the educational curricula of member states of the GCC and Yemen.
Dr. Ali El Qarani, Director of the Arab Bureau for Education affiliated to the Gulf Cooperation Council, revealed that the comprehensive plan for the development of the science and mathematics syllabuses in concerned states has been completed.
The plan includes new scientific subjects that weren’t previously included in the science curriculum in Gulf States.
Qarani told Asharq Al-Awsat that the project which was started two years ago provides for the adoption of two international volumes in the fields of science and mathematics for all the stages of education from primary up to and including high school education.
Al Qarani pointed out that the advanced science book series were carefully selected by experts and academics from various Gulf universities as well as ministries of Education participating in the project. He expects that they will be taught in Gulf schools starting from the next academic year.
Concerning the budget, Al Qarani said, “We are talking about a very big budget, in which all Gulf States had participated in variant ways because of the size of each state and the number of students as well as other considerations. However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had participated with the largest share in terms of expenditure on the developed plan given the wide area of the kingdom.”
He added, “We are talking about huge translations tasks, training educational staff and keeping pace with global curricula that had been selected as well as printing books and other givens that make such project a costly one. However, if the advantages and benefits of the project were measured in terms of developing the output of the educational system and raising the level of educational performance, then the cost will be completely acceptable.”