Saudi celebrities to help boost student values on YouTube

The Ministry of Education is looking into employing famous personalities of the new media era, who feature in stand-up comedy programs and YouTube channels, to bolster the success of the national preventive program for students.
The preventative program and campaign targets five million male and female students to educate them on the harms resulting from deviant thoughts and behaviors, with a specific focus on drug use.
The announcement came during the opening of a training workshop in Tabuk recently, titled “Sustainability of the student training,” where the executive manager of the program, Naser Al-Oraini, told the audience that the Ministry has now allocated SR 16 million for the implementation of this major media campaign.
Al-Oraini said that the workshop is complementary to other activities and events undertaken by the Ministry of Education, and aims to enable more than 30,000 male and female educational trainers. These trainers will help students boost the personal and social skills they need to understand themselves, build positive personalities, and prevent them from falling into serious behavioral problems, both now and in the future.
“The program will give students creative educational values so that they can employ them within the school environment, and within society,” the program’s manager added.
Omar Abu Hashim, acting director-general of education in Tabuk, was present at the workshop and was joined by the executive manager of the program as well as 50 experts from Riyadh, Makkah, Jazan, Jeddah, Al-Dawaser valley and Tabuk. The workshop will continue for three days.
During his opening speech, Abu Hashim stresssed the importance of such workshops in raising awareness of the role educators play in influencing youth as well as enlightening them about the dangers around them.