Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Following the agreement between ministers of culture and education to introduce music in school curriculum, many Saudis have hit social media platforms with photos of music classes held in the Kingdom about six decades ago.

Minister of Culture, Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan announced that he had reached an agreement with the Minister of Education Hamad Al-Ashaikh to restore teaching of music to the school curriculum .

Following the announcement, Saudis exchanged on social media tools music classes photos.

The most prominent of these showed 23 students of Al-Thaqr Model Schools in Jeddah playing various types of instruments including piano, guitar, violin, drums and others.

Photos of various musical instruments drawn on a wall appear behind the students.

A video clip on Twitter shows students of Al-Thaqr Schools depending on music on learning hymns. The teacher is playing accordion while the students repeat the verses after him following his musical note.

Al-Thaqr Schools were established in 1960. The principal then was Mohammed Abdul Samad Fiddah who made the schools an outstanding academic and an educational facility away from the old and obsolete pattern.

He introduced music in the school syllabus and recruited music teachers from Egypt. He also consolidated the relationship between the schools and the society through the organization of a number of cultural and awareness weeks such as the tree week, painting galleries and gala nights.

The social media users also exchanged photos showing music classes in Dar Al-Hanan School for Girls which was established in Jeddah in 1955. The pictures show girl students practicing music during the classes.

Commenting on the photos, Prince Badr wrote on his Twitter account: “Those beautiful days will return."

Under the agreement, a number of educational activities will be transferred to the ministry of culture including granting permission to private schools to teach music and arts and to benefit from the school theaters.