Day 4 in the KSA: Education

Finally, I went to bed at a descent time and I am feeling recharged. Today we had visited Dhahran Ahliyyah Schools. This is a private school approximately 25 minutes from the Saudi Armaco Compound. This not a typical school in Saudi Arabia because it is funded by Saudi Aramco. The facilities are similar to the U.S., but again, I would say that this is not a typical setting. The classes are segregated by gender, which is typical of schools in Saudi Arabia. The school is divided in a way that allows the boys and girls to share certain facilities (e.g. media center) without actual interaction throughout the school day. The students took each teacher on a private tour of the school. The men went to the boys side of the school, while the women went to the girls side of the school. The English these students spoke was amazing. If I had not know they were from Saudi Arabia I would have thought they were from America. At least 50% of the students had to come from parents that worked at Saudi Aramco. After the tour we gathered together to have a question and answer sesstion with the students. Several questions were asked to try to better understand the Saudi culture and schools.

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Saudi Schools in Eastern Province

1. How do you go about interacting with the girls when you are constantly separated from them during school and in public? All of the students smiled, but none of them answered because the principal and superintendent were there. They side stepped the question completly. Muhammed, my school guide, whispered to me that he would give the inside scoop later. He told me that many of the boys in this school have girl friends. They meet through friends and at certain academic functions outside of school and they use Facebook to send messages. Sometimes they will meet on the Aramco Compound because it is much more open to girls and boys interacting. Another student actually told me, "Thank god for Aramco." He was very thankul for ther "freedom" The boys told me that they like to hang out at the mall or play sports during their free time. If we were in Riyahd or other conservative locations it would be much more difficult to meet girls because they cannot interact in according Saudi law. In these places I am still unsure of how they exactly get to know each other prior to dating and marriage. I would suspect family would have a big say in these issues.

2. How many of the 50 students planned on attending college in another country? All of them raised their hand and named the different locations around the world. The United States was still popular, but many of the students would have Visa issues that lasted to long to resolve. It is my undertanding that this is a problem because there are many of the same names in Saudi Arabia. People are part of clans, sometimes very distant clans, but they are still defined by their names. Some of the names that the U.S. is looking for are flagged everytime they come through and it takes a long to time to do a background check. Unfortunatley we are losing international students because they have to decide on a different college in a different country.

3. How do you feel about going to the United States?
Many of them shared how they know many American are very nice and that the tragedy that happened on 9/11, along with a mix igorance and the media's perspective have put students in a different standing in the United States. They still were optomistic and the school works with them to try to choose schools that they think they will not determine a lot of discrimination.

It was really nice to hear from the students perspective. I made sure to give Muhammed my business card so he could contact me. I have a feeling we will have the possibility to Skype with him in class to ask him questions. He seemed very intelligent and was full of enthusiasm for life. I would love to give him a chance to visit Minnesota so we could take him around our state and have him come to our school. Hmmm.....

Next, we visited the college preparatory for boys, and then went on to tour the girls school. These are top-notch schools with the best of the best of Saudi Arabia. The students were very intelligent and well traveled already. They too all planned to study outside of KSA with many focusing on the United States. The women's preparpatory school was a huge ray of hope for women in Saudi Arabia. Most of these students have science and math down, but need a lot of work with reading and writing in the English language. Considering this is a foreign language it is impressive how well they can speak it in 10 months. These schools were the ultimate schools in preparation for rigorous academics and culture shock. The girls were so happy to meet us and some of them even allowed us to take pictures. They are going to do well in life, I hope they are treated right when they come to the United States. Again, the main thing slowing this change down is the dominance of religion. Change will take time, but it seems as though it is slowly getting there.

I am going to take a short nap and then we are going to the Sunset Beach Resort for Saudi entertainment and food.

Until next time.

P.S. I know some of you will love to hear that some of the boy students here were wearing Beckham jerseys. Soccer is a big deal here! Basketball also was a big interest for many of the boy students. I wonder if the girls find sports as interesting? I will have to ask and find out?