Literature Review
It is apparent that acquiring education has become more of a basic need than just a stage that one has to pass through while growing. The value of education can never be underestimated since it influences all aspects of a person’s life. Basic definitions of education need to be examined carefully so that this important element may be incorporated. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, education is known to have a varying contextual meaning.
Education can be described as “the action or process of educating or being educated; also: a stage of such a process” (Merriam Webster dictionary, 2011 p. 87). In order to be to make a sound discussion, education has been treated as a transformational process which equips people in life.
This paper is a review of literature on education among Saudi females. It is a comprehensive review which illustrates how education is viewed differently in various parts of the world. This has been done by examining Saudi females and the processes of acquiring and using education.
Education affects all areas of life. It can be argued out to be a tool which equips people’s minds to face the real world (Sedgwick, 2001). It is quite easier for educated folk to face the reality of life than those who are not educated (Hamdan, 2005). Hence, knowledge and information empower people by making them more resourceful in their respective communities. Besides, information is more enriching than any other achievable treasure (Elliott, 2008).
This literature review makes a concerted effort to explore all significant factors of education in Saudi Arabia. It expounds on the influence of backgrounds, current and future state of education in Saudi Arabia. It also elaborates several aspects which impact girls’ education in the region. It is worth mentioning that this paper examines the history to female education and the challenges that females encounter in their pursuit of education.
Context of education in Saudi Arabia
An examination of the history of females’ educational activities in the competitive system in Saudi Arabia is pivotal. It is an informative approach which explains the current status of the education system. Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932. The ministry of education in Saudi Arabia was established in 1952 (Wilson & Graham, 1994).
At this time, both males and females were allowed to study through one of the three options available. Males were offered general education or traditional Islamic education, while females were only offered general education (Sedgwick, 2001). In the general education stream, males and females were taught the same curriculum and sat for the same examinations. A mandate was given to this Saudi agency which had a role of ensuring social welfare for all citizens.
The ministry of education oversaw boys’ education (Wilson & Graham, 1994). The placing of girl education under the jurisdiction of the General Presidency for Girls’ Education might seem to be contradictory and probably trigger thoughts of discrimination from rationally mature readers. The fact that Saudi Arabia was, and remains an Islamic nation, accounts for why the girl child was educated in accordance to Islamic values.
This could not be an issue of contention. Human beings develop well when they are given a chance to follow the norms of their society (Jerichow, 1998).Women had enough space to pursue education. It is worth noting that between 1970 and 1982, there were 11 colleges established exclusively for women to pursue bachelor’s degrees.
Some of the colleges had the capacity to offer masters degrees in “education, science, humanities and social work” (Sedgwick, 2001). One of the colleges offered doctorate studies in education (Sedgwick, 2001). The charts below (chart 1 and 2) show the progress of girls’ education in Saudi Arabia from 1974/5 compared to 2004/5.
By 2003, Saudi Arabia had the lowest literacy rate (62%) among the Gulf nations (Al-Khalifa, 2009). However, the literacy rates of men and women were 72% and 50% respectively (Al-Khalifa, 2009). Taking into consideration the rates of literacy of men and women (15% and 2% respectively) in 1970, it is clear that the literacy levels have continuously been improved though females continue to lag behind males. It is expected that by 2015, the rates will be much higher if the trends are to continue (Hamdan, 2005).
It can be considered that the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in 1930 was an important input towards the development of education. It was used in creating a pool of funds for schools to be set up across the nation. The discovery of oil in the nation is also highly associated with much of the changes associated with women and their education.
Of great impact was the establishment of the ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company) which brought many American families working with the companies to Saudi Arabia in 1970s. Schools had to be built to educate the children of ARAMCO employees (Jerichow, 1998).
This was a remarkable economic development. It proved to highly influential to the Saudi people. They got a consistent source of income to continue funding their education. Numbers of scholars grew accordingly. More women enrolled in schools since conditions became more favorable.
Modernization has had an impact on the education of Saudi people. Women in Saudi Arabia have been changed accordingly. It has a highly felt impact to the general Saudi Arabian society (Hamdan, 2005). The effect of placing the girl’s education under the jurisdiction of the General Presidency for Girls’ Education can be said to have altered the way girls and women in general viewed education.
Challenges Confronted
The kind of information that one is exposed to determines the ability of such a person (Ramady, 2010). As much as the Saudi Arabian education system was established as early as the 1950s, one may want to argue that it has been more of a psychological conditioning for the females. The case may be so because students were given a training which mastered their way of living. They were directed towards a behavior which concurred with societal norms (Farlex, 2011).
Psychological conditioning can be defined as “a process of behavior modification in which a subject is encouraged to behave in a desired manner through positive or negative reinforcement, so that the subject comes to associate the pleasure or displeasure of the reinforcement with the behavior” (Farlex, 2011). The conditioning of females in education to fit set measures is one of the biggest challenges to their education.
Hamdan (2005) noted that girls’ education should not necessarily be streamlined to educate girls into domestic roles as “good mothers, nurses or teachers”. There were numerous of such cases in girls’ education and thus females who went through the education system became mothers, r teachers or nurses.
Technically, by not being empowered educationwise, they were barred from the pursuit of most other areas of interest. The effect of this kind of conditioning has not been well documented. However Hamdan (2005) notes that it is not a highly preferred system of education.
Negative Perception towards Education
Though there is a clear indication that the government is willing to support girls’ education, there are also many indicators that the efforts being put in place are too little to create any difference and may just elicit negative perception towards female education (Budhwar & Mellahi, n.d.). It is notable that despite the various pieces of legislation that are in place, women are still not entitled to fair and equal treatment just like men. This has been due to attitude of the society AlMunajjed (n.d.)
The net effect that this kind of treatment has on girls and women is the creation of a negative perception towards education for females.
Lack of Self Confidence
Early marriages are still practiced in Saudi Arabia whereby young girls are normally married off to older men. In most cases, women perceive this as an act of degrading their self image and it reduces their self confidence. Early marriages inhibit young girls from pursuing their education further (AlMunajjed, n.d.). The system of educating boys and girls differently also contributes to degrading the self confidence of girls.
Numerous complaints have been aired in regard to the resources that are usually allocated for female education (AlMunajjed, n.d.). It has been alleged that resources allocated for girls’ education are less when compared to those of boys. For example, evidence has shown that teaching staff posted to the boys’ schools are often of higher qualifications when compared to those in girl schools.
This represents outright discrimination and it is a clear indication that females are not as worthy for investing in (Hamdan, 2005). When critically examined, this is a degradation of the female dignity and which in the long run erodes the self confidence of females (Jerichow, 1998).
Lack of Role Models in Education
Due to the nature of education in Saudi Arabia, it is very hard for a female student to excel in education. Because of this, there are few female leaders in the academic fields. This implies that girls who seek to identify themselves with senior girls as role models in education often do not have one to imitate. This can be quite discouraging especially where role models from other countries can not be admired by the Saudi girls because they do not incur similar challenges as those incurred by female students in Saudi Arabia (AlMunajjed, n.d.).
Present Status: Higher Education and Female Students
For several years Saudi women have been marginalized since it was there legal guardians, mainly their husbands and fathers who could define the destiny of a Saudi woman. Behind this denial of liberties, there are huge improvements being made in the field of higher education (Hamdan, 2005).
There has been growing access for women into higher institutions of learning and particularly universities. This has been recognized as a monumental step that could lay the foundation for the rights of women and their future empowerment especially in accessing employment. It is considered that any effort to liberate and to empower the Saudi woman should be focused in education (Ramady, 2010).
There has been a women education in Saudi Arabia since 1960.The efforts of the King Abdullah has further extended the education system for women and his reign has therefore been considered a golden era for women in regards to higher education. This King made women’s higher education his top priority in 2005 and ensured that that education of Saudi women continues to be an important objective.
The efforts of the King are paying off since the current figure for women in universities account for 58 percent and the rate is expected to rise (Elliott, 2008). Consequently, to ensure that women access higher education from tertiary, Secondary and the university, he has constructed at least 300 colleges for women.
These efforts have been recognized by the international community and currently, Saudi Arabia ranks 25th in the world among countries with a high percentage of women from the population in universities. Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University is the world’s number one women only institution and it accommodates approximately 50,000 female students (World Policy, 2011).
Since, Saudi Arabia is a religiously conservative country; the enhancement of women’s access to higher education has raised a lot of tension between the government and the Wahhabi religious establishment particularly regarding gender-integrated classes. Despite the expansion of opportunities for higher education for women, they still have to seek legal permission from their fathers or their husbands to participate (Elliott, 2008).
Consequently, there are some courses that women are not allowed to undertake like engineering, construction and aviation. Women are only allowed to study law at the undergraduate level but they are not allowed to practice it. There are some cases also where women are not allowed to study, programs like general surgery, orthopedic surgery and pediatrics, as has been witnessed in King Fahd Teaching Hospital in Al-Khobar where female are not admitted to these programs (World Policy, 2011).
Females Participation in Distance Education
Distance education has been introduced to meet the increased demand for education. The presence of modern advanced systems of telecommunication and information technology, and the need to minimize costs in supplying education to a rapidly growing market, has necessitated the move to greater distance education offerings.
The decentralization of education so as to reach a critical mass of the population and the need to ensure education for all has been applied in Saudi Arabia. Of particular attention, are program that target women in the population, particularly those groups who have been marginalized in the past (Elliott, 2008). Distance education is gaining prominence in Saudi Arabia. This has been made possible by the large distribution of the student population.
Distance education in Saudi Arabia is also applied due to gender segregation in tertiary education where male lecturers are not allowed to teach female students and they can only teach them by use of Closed Circuit Television, one way video and two-way audio broadcast (Elliott, 2008). Distance education allows males to teach females as they do need to be personally face to face in the act of the teaching.
Higher education has been used to enhance women’s access to education and to increase their opportunities. This has been achieved by the use of VSAT broadcasting technology and the internet (Elliott, 2008).
In female colleges, for example, which operate under General Presidency for Girls Education, a subsidiary of Ministry of education, has been elevated to Princess Noura University and had its lectures transmitted from Riyadh to all female student institutions in the kingdom. The lectures and tutorials are made available through DVDs and video streaming (Al-Khalifa, 2009).
Technology learning on females’ public school
Technology-aided learning in Saudi Arabia has been applied as a motivation to utilize computer abilities in various education domains and to promote the activities of the learners (Elliott, 2008). This system has been dubbed as e-learning. In this system, education content is delivered by the use of television, Video tape, CD-ROM and computer-based training.
E-Learning in higher education was launched by GOTEVOT, which is the official government authority in charge of technical and vocational training (Al-Khalifa, 2009). The ministry of education recognizes E-learning in learning institutions so as to address the issue the shortage of female lecturers in gender-segregated institutions.
Way Forward
Distance Education Barriers
The barriers facing students pursuing distance education fall in the following categories: lack of feedback, response from teachers, comprehensive training, alienation, isolation and few Saudi women scholars. Distance learning students have a lot of insecurities regarding their learning. This support is usually in terms of expenses they incur in the course of acquiring education.
Lack of Feedback or Response from the Teachers
Most Female students do not have direct contact with their teachers hence leading to self-evaluation trouble. This may lead to risk of limited academic and social integration into a complete institutional life in future.
Isolation and alienation
There are students who have a feeling that they are alienated from the system of education. Consequently, distance education will take away the normal social interactions which are associated with traditional and conventional learning environment.
Comprehensive Training
There may be some cases where majority of the students are well conversant with technological issues like the use of computer and internet. Using of technology has the risk of excluding some students who lack computer skills (Galusha, 2008). In this case, comprehensive training should be encouraged in order to build the learners skills making them to be able to use technology effectively (MĂĽller, 2008).
Saudi Women Scholars
There are very few Saudi women scholars. This has been probably due to the kind of societal conditioning towards women education. As noted above, there are too many factors which inhibit the pursuit of education by Saudi women. There is need to encourage the few Saudi women scholars to speak up.
It has been a challenge to get the Saudi women scholars to engage in public forums where they can be reached by those seeking inspiration. There is also need to encourage more women to participate in the job market where they can showcase their talents and abilities. This will enable them to come out clearly and be icons for young Saudi girls who might be eager to pursue education to higher levels (Sidiya, 2010).
The launch of inspirational dialogue forums like the one in Jeddah is quite significant. Such inspirational talks will encourage young Saudi girls to go through the education system and come out successfully (Sabbagh, 1996).
Further, such inspirational dialogue should be promoting successful women in entrepreneurship, artists and academic scholars. The Jeddah program was an online forum initiated by Unilever as part of its corporate social responsibility so as to create role models for the young Saudi women and to achieve positive contribution from women (Banga, 2011).
Conclusion
The education of females in Saudi has empowered women in the society and helped to reduce the gender gap which has been the greatest impediment to the education of females. This has prompted the government to reform the education system so as to address the challenges.
The development of educational infrastructure such as schools for women and distance education to enable rural women access education opportunities has been put in place. The King has played a significant role in furthering education for women. From 11 colleges in the 1970s, the number of women colleges has drastically increased to 300. There is a continued need, however, for even greater effort to be channeled towards ensuring that the girl child has an equal chance to full education.
References
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