Okaz / Saudi Gazette

TAIF — Many parents of an elementary school in Taif were concerned because of the lack of preparation for the school year, which starts next Sunday, when they received an SMS message from the educational department in the province asking them to find a suitable building to rent for the elementary school.

They specified that the building should be with 20-25 rooms and with a big outside yard.

Parents considered the SMS at this time a clear signal of the lack of preparation from the educational department in the region because they did not take up this issue early by finding a suitable building or merge the school with another one, so a shift system could be set , morning and evening time, instead of leaving the issue like this for the last minute.

Okaz trip to the area, showed number of other educational projects that are on hold. In one of the locations, they found an elementary school that was supposed to have been finished three years ago, but until now is unfinished. The total cost of this project was SR6.2 million, but with no sign of it being any near completion or any sign of workers to finish it. Residents in the neighborhood told the newspaper that workers sometimes come to the site to work but on many other times are absent.

In another neighborhood, another middle school project, worth SR5.5 million, was on hold and not completed. Okaz went to Al-Waset neighborhood where they found another elementary school project, worth more than SR10 million and supposed to be handed over three years ago, not yet completed.

Okaz tried to reach the head of education in Taif, Talal Al-Luhaibi, to comment on the issue of suspended school projects, but he declined to comment.

In Asir, number of residents in Al-Wadeen center in Abha, south of Saudi Arabia, were surprised at the lack of attention by the education department of Asir on the project of the middle school that was scheduled to be done six years ago, but had yet not finished. Students of this middle school are finding themselves again forced to study in a rented school building.

Hussein Al-Qahtani, parent of a student in this school, said that citizen are sad that these students receive their education in a building that is lacking all needed requirement for education. “We were hoping that the Education Ministry will announce the completion of this project, although it was supposed to have been done many years ago.” He asked who is following up with these projects and when these projects will remain uncompleted.

The education department in the area said that they have handed over 10 projects, at a total worth of SR41.8 million, saying that these projects will decrease the number of rented schools and provide an attractive educational environment for male and female students.