Cairo: Music teaching will be introduced in kindergartens and to the first graders in Saudi Arabia as part of education upgrade in the kingdom, according to an education official.
“The ministry (of education) is about to train 8,000 female teachers in music arts,” said education advisor Abdulatif Al Hamadi.
Earlier this week, the Saudi ministries of education and culture unveiled a plan to train 8,000 kindergarten female teachers in music in the second phase of a course that saw in May the training of 7,000 other kindergarten teachers in its first phase.
The strategy aims, among other things, to discover Saudi talents at an early age and develop them in a way helping to boost competitiveness between educational and cultural sectors.
Abdulatif added that theatres will be activated in public and private schools in the kingdom, which is experiencing promotion of arts as part of dramatic changes.
He explained that at the level of the primary schooling, Arabic classes have increased to five per week instead of four and that math and English classes have likewise increased while Islamic studies and Holy Quran have been integrated into one subject.
“The ministry at present focuses on essential subjects to boost students’ basic skills as well as requirements of the era such as adding a subject of digital skills from the fourth to the sixth grades so that students will learn a lot of basics and principles of cyber security,” he told Saudi news portal Sabq.
“The development process, witnessed by educational stages, comes to keep pace with global development,” he said.
As of the new school year due to begin next week, new subjects such as earth sciences, space and event managements will be introduced in the secondary school stage, he noted.
