Introduction
Al-Andalus School is one of the private schools operating in Saudi Arabia. In its operations, the school is committed to providing quality education to children in Saudi Arabia. The school offers education to children from the 1st to 12th grade.
Over the years, the school has undergone significant growth thus motivating its founders to establish new branches. One of the factors that have contributed to the school’s growth is its curriculum expansion.
In 2007, the school introduced the American Diploma Program to satisfy the ever-increasing need of credible English curriculum (Alam, 2007).
Despite its current effectiveness in providing quality education, the school is experiencing challenges emanating from changes in the Saudi Arabian education sector. This paper takes into account the case of Al-Andalus School in a bid to develop a better understanding of challenges in schools in Saudi Arabia.
In reviewing the case of Al-Andalus, the paper takes into account a number of elements like conducting a literature review on challenges facing schools in the country.
Moreover, the paper outlines the key problems that the school is facing currently coupled with illustrating the research framework, source of data, and method of analyzing the collected data.
Background of challenges experienced by schools in Saudi Arabia
The education sector in Saudi Arabia has undergone extensive transformation over the past two decades (Cordesman, 2010). One of the main aspects that have become dominant in the sector includes improving the sector’s capacity to teach the increasing young population.
Secondly, the sector is grappling with the challenge of ensuring that it enhances the country’s economic growth by imparting relevant skills to students.
The public school system accounts for the largest percentage of all schools in Saudi Arabia. A study conducted in 2009 showed that 90 per cent of all students in Saudi Arabia attend public schools (Oxford Business Group, 2009).
The recent regulatory developments in the country are fueling growth of private schools. In addition, the high quality of education provided in private schools is stimulating a high rate of student transfers from public to private schools.
Parents are becoming more concerned with the quality of education their children receive; therefore, there is a high likelihood of parents preferring private schools to public schools in the future (Alpen Capital, 2012). This phenomenon is increasing the challenges faced by private school directors and principals.
Being one of the private schools in Saudi Arabia, the founders of Al-Andalus Private School are experiencing different challenges arising from changes in the education sector. The paper evaluates the case of Al-Andalus Private School to understand the challenges experienced in Saudi Arabian schools.
Problem statement
As aforementioned, schools in Saudi Arabia are undergoing intense changes, which have arisen from rampant societal changes and educational reforms that the government is currently undertaking.
The need to develop a knowledge-based economy is one of the factors that have stimulated the Saudi Arabian government to incorporate reforms within the education sector (Renihan & Phillips, 2003).
Findings of a study conducted by Alpen reveal that the growth of private education sector in Saudi Arabia is likely to outpace that of public schools.
This growth has been facilitated by the high rate at which private schools are being perceived as more effective in the provision of knowledge compared to public schools (Alpen Capital, 2012).
Tucker and Codding (2002) are of the opinion that the transformation will substantially benefit private schools by increasing their financial strength.
Therefore, it will be relatively easy for private schools to expand geographically. Consequently, private schools will be required to incorporate effective school leadership to attain the intended growth (Renihan & Phillips, 2003).
In its operations, Al-Andalus experiences a number of challenges that may limit its growth. Some of these challenges relate to managing growth, a relatively high teacher to student ratio, new government laws, and lack of work-life balance amongst teachers.
The high demand for quality education has led to growth in student enrollment in Al-Andalus. The school has markedly improved its curriculum to meet the student education demand. Currently, the school teaches children from the 1st to 12th grade.
The rise in diversity within the work environment has motivated the school management to incorporate new courses and curriculums such as American Diploma and the Egyptian curriculum. The school also teaches the Saudi curriculum.
The school operates as a business entity and thus all its operations are geared towards profit maximization. Therefore, growth is a welcome phenomenon. However, the high rate of growth being experienced has become a challenge to the school’s founders with regard to managing the growth.
The school management has to recruit additional staff to satisfy the requirements of the new lines of curriculum. Moreover, the management has to acquire or put up new premises and other learning facilities, which come at an additional cost.
In an effort to meet the rise in student enrollment, the management established three different schools in various cities in Saudi Arabia.
The current teacher to student ratio in Al-Andalus is 1 to 8. However, the average student to teacher ratio in most schools around the world is 1 to 16. The high teacher to student ratio presents a challenge to the school’s founders for it is expensive to maintain the large number of teachers.
Over the past decade, the Saudi government has increasingly become cognizant of the fact that education is crucial in the country’s growth. This realization has led to the formulation of numerous legal reforms that are affecting the education sectors.
The government increased the minimum wage for teachers from S.R 2000 to S.R 5000 this year in a timely move to motivate teachers.
This aspect poses a problem to school owners and directors because they have to comply with the law by adhering to the legal minimum wage. Complying with this law means that there is a high probability of schools experiencing financial constraints.
The school’s founders also face the task of ensuring that they incorporate the concept of work-life balance. Currently, the school’s working environment does not motivate employees to execute their duties more efficiently and effectively.
The school’s employees do not feel that the contemporary working environment is enjoyable enough. This aspect makes it evident that the school management does not appreciate the importance of ensuring that employees achieve work-life balance.
According to Williamson and Massey (2008), a working environment that is not enjoyable leads to increase in employees’ stress level. Consequently, the employees’ level of productivity is negatively influenced.
However, efficient implementation of work-life balance in an organization results in healthier and happier workforce thus increasing the probability of the firm attaining its goals.
One of the aspects that the school’s founders should consider is adoption of best management practices such incorporating flexible-working hours. Such policies will significantly increase the employees’ satisfaction level.
Research framework
The objective of the research is to explore the challenges faced by schools in Saudi Arabia. Integration of a research designs in conducting a study enables the study to be logical thus resulting into appropriate findings (Maxwell, 2005).
In conducting the study, qualitative research design will be used, which will enable researchers to acquire substantial amount of information. Selection of qualitative research design is taken into account due to the explanatory nature of the research.
Qualitative research design is also considered a detailed design, which enables the research to provide in-depth assessment of the issue under consideration.
Moreover, the research employs qualitative research framework because there is no definite procedure of conducting the study by utilizing this research design.
Qualitative research design is a multi-method of research, which is interpretive in nature. In addition, qualitative research design is naturalistic in nature. This means that the researchers conduct a study on the subject matter by considering the natural setting.
Adoption of qualitative research design will allow the gathering of a wide range of information. Therefore, the study will incorporate quantitative research design to make it easier for the target parties (the school’s management) to interpret the research findings.
Data collection
In order to ensure reliability of the research findings, the researcher will utilize both primary and secondary sources of data and thus collect data using interviews and questionnaires.
Face-to-face interviews will be conducted on selected respondents for this move will give the researcher an opportunity to explore further the challenges faced by schools in Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the researcher will use of semi-structured questionnaires consisting of both close and open-ended questionnaires. Use of open-ended questionnaires will allow respondents to have freedom in responding to the questions. The questionnaires will be reviewed before distributing them to the respondents.
Data analysis
The research questions considered in conducting the study will be analyzed individually.
Moreover, the researchers will collect voluminous data because most of the data collected from the field will be descriptive in nature and thus use an effective data analysis and presentation method by considering a number of variables relevant for the study.
The targeted stakeholders will use tables and graphs to ensure ease in the process of data interpretation. This method of data presentation will also aid in condensing the data collected from the field.
Conclusion
By taking into account the case of Al-Andalus, the paper demonstrates that school directors in Saudi Arabia are experiencing challenges in running their institutions. These challenges emanate from the numerous reforms and transformations being undertaken within the education sector.
In a bid to promote the country’s economic growth, the Saudi Arabian government is increasingly considering the education sectors a key factor in attaining the desired growth. This realization has led to the formulation of legal reforms affecting that are affecting schools.
The high quality of education in private schools is promoting student transfer from public to private schools, and thus private schools are experiencing a high growth rate with regard to student enrollment.
This aspect presents a challenge to school owners in managing the growth. Failure to create an enjoyable working environment is also a serious challenge facing schools.
Reference List
Alam, S. (2007). American Diploma Program: System of education: the American Diploma program basics. Web.
Alpen Capital: GCC education industry. (2012). Web.
Cordesman, A. (2010). Saudi Arabia enters the 21st century. London, UK: Greenwood Publishing Company.
Maxwell, J. (2005). Qualitative research design: an interactive approach. New Jersey, USA: Sage Publication.
Oxford Business Group: The report: Saudi Arabia 2009. (2009). Oxford, USA: Oxford Business Group.
Renihan, P., & Phillips, S. (2003). The role of the school principal: present status and future challenges in managing effective schools. Kelowna: Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education.
Tucker, M., & Codding, J. (2002). Principal challenge: leading and managing schools in the era of accountability. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Williamson, A., & Massey, C. (2008). Work-life balance in small business: The impact of firm and family milestone. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Center for SME Research.