Rain causes more pain for girl students as they can’t leave school without a mehram.

The Ministry of Education has introduced a new rule which provides for classes to be suspended in case of rain.

The ministry explained in a circular to all departments that suspending classes would be dependent upon two sets of circumstances.

The first will merely confirm the seriousness of the situation through continuous communication by the education directors with the meteorology department. This includes cases in which there are advanced alerts concerning winds and dust storms when the visibility is less than 500 meters, and if there are winds from 50-69 km per hour in the case of expected heavy rains.

The second allows education directors to announce the suspension of classes after confirming the seriousness of the weather conditions during or after the beginning of classes. The directors are also instructed to refer to the Civil Defense Department in the affected regions or governorates before making any decision.

The circumstances also include warnings of surface winds up to 70 km per hour or more and the lack of visibility and unusual aerial phenomena which may result in complications adversely affecting normal life, such as heavy rainfall, strong winds and hail plus a sharp drop in temperature.

In all situations the meteorology department will continue reporting weather conditions to the Ministry of Education and the education departments through text messages and faxes. The Security and Safety Department in the ministry will receive the reports and pass them onto the relevant bodies.

The new rules define the precautionary measures to be taken by the public education departments for boys and girls in case of unusual weather, and how to address any construction and electromechanical malfunctions that affect the safety of school staff and students.

Educational trips

At the same time, the ministry has put in place nine controls to allow public schools to undertake school trips outside the cities and governorates of the Kingdom, though such trips will only be allowed in the middle and secondary levels.

The controls specified that the trips be made during the weekends or official vacations, and the collective means of transport must be safe and convenient.

The ministry put in place conditions on schools wishing to make outside trips. The schools must get approval of the regional education department and that at least two teachers must accompany the students, with 15 students under the supervision of a single teacher. Safe and secure lodging must be provided.

Pertaining to another matter, the ministry said it had made great strides in the restructuring process in order to implement the Royal Decree integrating public and university education.

Osama Fahad Al-Hezan, the superintendent of administrative and financial affairs at the ministry, said the merger was proceeding as planned.

“This integration will have positive impacts on the educational level as well as on financial and administrative side,” he added.

He said that since the launch of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Foreign Scholarship Program, the ministry had contracted a number of academic professors to assist in launching the program on schedule, and to organize procedures to send a large number of students for scholarship study.

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