Saudi representatives and their agents constantly claim that the ministry of education’s textbooks have been reformed. As our July 2008 report demonstrates, this is mendacious: The culture of hatred against the non-Wahhabi is alive and well in the Saudi government’s Islamic studies textbooks. These textbooks are required for all Saudi pubic schools and dominate the Saudi curriculum in the upper grades. The ministry posts these texts in full on its website and the government’s Wahhabi establishment ships them free to mosques and Muslim schools and libraries throughout the world. According to Saudi human-rights expert Ali Al Ahmed, president of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs: “This could be a watershed for Saudi education. Prince Faisal is known to be effective and have the king’s trust. He is someone capable of overhauling the curriculum.” This is not to say that Saudi Arabia is moving toward a separation of mosque and state. That would require, for example, not merely a shift in personnel of the religious police, whose raison d’etre is to coerce religious observance, but its complete abolition. Nor is there any sign of a greater political opening, much less a democratic revolution. Shiites lost ground in the now expanded Consultative Council. And, only in Saudi Arabia could replacing officials with royal family members be celebrated as reform. Nevertheless, these changes bring hope for the modernizing of Saudi education. Such decisive action by the monarch, who financially underwrites and politically empowers those who’ve shaped Saudi culture, has been long overdue. Whether cultural change will finally now come to the Kingdom bears close watching.
The designation of ``Key School'' exists for selected schools at every educational level in China: elementary, secondary and higher. In addition, there are various levels of the ``key'' designation itself: There are national key institutions, provincial or municipal key institutions, and county or district key institutions. Key schools all enjoy priority funding as well as the privilege of recruiting the best students. At the elementary and secondary levels, this concept is similar to that of a ``magnet'' or ``college preparatory'' school in the United States. Entry into such schools is based on examination and academic promise and achievement. For such schools, success is usually measured in terms of the percentage of its graduates entering colleges and universities, especially the key colleges and universities. The philosophy has been that giving a limited number of schools, colleges and universities priority in allocating limited resources, then the t...
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