A recent series in Slate features an interesting look at the Saudi education system – a system which has been going through some changes over the last few years in an effort to change – and improve - the way Saudis learn.Like so many things, the changes started after – and as a direct result of – 9/11, when Saudis were struggling to uncover the roots of extremism.
'Members of the community tried to understand where they went wrong, and how extremist ideologies were able to infiltrate Saudi society,' wrote Saudi professor Mohammad Zayed Youssef.
Youssef's close study of the country's school system revealed that not only did it preach hatred against Christians and Jews, but it was filled with 'the spread of hatred between Muslims.' This curriculum was 'aggressively biased toward one school of thought, completely disregarding the principles of dialogue and respect between Muslims,' Youssef wrote.
Change was desperately needed, and in 2004 the Ministry of Education’s Ten Year Plan was announced.
The plan, which in 2006 spawned the King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Project for Developing Public Education (Tatweer), featured 16 goals covering everything from kindergarten and technical education for girls, to “deepening the spirit of loyalty and proud (sic) of the country through intellectual awareness based on recognizing issues of the country.'
The plan also called for the development of “syllabi based on Islamic values leading to the development of male and female students’ personality and to their integration in society as well as to the achievement of scientific and thinking skills and life characteristics resulting in self education and lifelong learning.”
And that, according to the Slate series by Kelly McEvers, is where things got –and get- a little tricky.
“The ostensible idea of Tatweer is to improve the quality of graduates in Saudi Arabia—that as the country's population explodes (more than 70 percent of Saudi Arabia is under the age of 30) and oil revenues dwindle, the kingdom needs more critical thinkers prepared to enter a modern, diversified workplace.
The underlying idea is that to produce such graduates, the curriculum must be less focused on religion—or, at least, the single, monolithic version of Islam that has dominated Saudi Arabia since the 1980s.”
Mmm.
One of the targets of reform has been textbooks, many of the same textbooks that Youseff examined in his study. Language has been soften, and some ideas have been removed completely.
“Now any passages relating to Walaa wal Baraa (the question of whether Muslims should associate with non-Muslims) and jihad have been removed from all Saudi textbooks. But Saudi analysts say these deletions have done little to address how the curriculum might have led to violence in the past.
'You can't just remove a section of a book and call it change,' says Yehya al Amir, who himself once followed the strict Wahhabi-salafi line and recently wrote a book on the origins of modern Saudi extremism. 'If you want to change the curriculum, you have to put forward an entirely new way of life, a new ideology.'
But putting forward anything new - especially a new way of life and a new ideology - in Saudi can be a challenge.
And nine times out of time, it will be met with resistance.
And that, according to McEvers, is exactly what’s happening in Saudi schools.
'All teachers are under stress about this issue,' [a teacher] says. 'This is all due to political pressures from the West. They ordered that these changes be made. This is wrong.'
The concept of al Walaa wal Baraa simply means that Muslims should not go out of their way to befriend non-Muslims, the teacher says—more specifically, that Muslims should be 'emancipated' from non-Muslims.
Removing this idea from the curriculum will 'open doors,' the teacher says. 'The new generation will ... think that it is OK for [non-Muslims] to enter Mecca' and spread other religions, he says.”
Another teacher notes, 'The teachers have researched these deletions, and we know why the government made them. This is the dangerous point: Maybe it makes the teachers more angry. Maybe it makes them teach these subjects even more strongly.'
The series is a good one, and surely generates more questions than answers about a system with boatloads of potential and, apparently, an equal number of potential problems.
What role does education play in the development of society? In the development of morals and character, and personal accountability? How much influence should schools – and teachers – have on these issues, and how much influence should be in the hands of parents?
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