KSA’s commitment to education hailed

DAMMAM: Greater emphasis on e-learning in the Kingdom’s education system, coupled with target to modernize teaching methods, underpin a wider drive to diversify the economy away from oil and create more jobs, a report issued by Oxford Business Group (OBG) has said.
“A five-year SR80 billion plan was approved last year to develop Saudi Arabia’s education sector, in addition to the annual allocation to the Ministry of Education. As part of the plan, 25,000 teachers will be trained overseas and resources are to be allocated to improve the online capabilities of educational institutions and promote e-learning,” the report said.
The London-headquartered OBG is a global publishing, research and consultancy firm, which publishes economic intelligence on the markets of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The government’s ongoing commitment to education was underlined in the budget for 2015, when it received a quarter of the total government spending allocation, or SR217 billion, up 3 percent on last year’s allocation, the report revealed.
Governments, private schools and corporations are also moving to adopt a digital approach to education. In the Middle East, revenues in this segment are expected to rise from $443 million in 2013 to $560.7 million by 2016, according to a report by electronic education solutions provider Docebo.
“The government has taken a comprehensive approach to the e-government rollout by emphasizing e-services, e-commerce and e-learning,” the center’s general manager, Abdullah M. Al-Muqrin said. “Creating an entire online library accessible to all Saudi students, both throughout the Kingdom and overseas, is a step in the right direction. This is giving students equal opportunities of access regardless of location.”
University education in particular has received a boost in recent years, according to Abdullah Al-Mosa, president of the Saudi Electronic University. “E-learning is now growing faster than ever before in the Kingdom, especially with a greater emphasis being placed on the sector’s development by the ministry itself,” Al-Mosa said.
Mohammed Al-Abbadi, general manager of Cisco Systems KSA, said that the Saudi education sector offered one of the greatest opportunities for growth. “By partnering with educational institutions, government administrations and community-based organizations, we are delivering ICT education through effective in-classroom learning combined with innovative cloud-based curriculums.”