History of Women Education in Saudi

HISTORY OF WOMEN EDUCATION IN SAUDI

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Saudi Arabia

Women in Saudi Arabia play an important role, and Women have a higher graduation rate from college than males do in 2023. Women receive free, widespread access to K-12, undergraduate, and graduate Education, including full-board scholarships to over 512 universities globally.

In 1955, Queen (Princess at the time) Effat, King Faisal's Wife, of Saudi Arabia established "Dar Al Hanan", the first school for girls in the country. In 1959, King Saud addressed the nation, started a public Girl Education program. In 1960, "Kuliyat Al Banat" (The girl college) was launched, which was the first girl form of higher education in Saudi Arabia. By 1961 there were 12 elementary schools for girls and by 1965 there were 160. By 1970, there 357 and by 1975 there were 963, and 1980 there were 1,810. By 1981, the number of girls enrolled in public schools almost equaled the number of boys.

In 2005, the Saudi government launched King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP), with over half of the scholarship beneficiaries being women. In 2015, 44,000 women had graduated from top universities in the US, East Asia, Europe, and more. The scholarship provided full-board scholarships for women including a year-round ticket, monthly stipend, full tuition coverage, free private tutoring, and even a monthly stipend and yearly ticket for a male family relative to travel with all the women students.

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Women's empowerment

Education systems vary in administration, curriculum and personnel, but all have an influence on the students that they serve. As women have gained rights, formal education has become a symbol of progress and a step toward gender equity. In order for true gender equity to exist, a holistic approach needs to be taken. Different places have different challenges requiring different solutions. However, focusing on women's empowerment in educational systems worldwide is shown to be successful.

The discussion of girl power and women's education as solutions for eliminating violence against women and economic dependence on men can sometimes take dominance and result in the suppression of understanding how context, history and other factors affect women (Shenila Khoja-Moolji, 2015). For example, when past secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, referenced the tragedies of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan and the girls kidnapping in Chibok, Nigeria, as comparable, using girls' education as the focus, history and context were ignored. What led to the shooting of Malala was reduced to being solely about her educating herself as a girl. United States interference, poverty, and government corruption and instability were not addressed.

Education systems and schools play a central role in determining girls' interest in various subjects, including STEM subjects, which can contribute to women's empowerment by providing equal opportunities to access and benefit from quality STEM education. To enhance female literacy in Bangladesh, the government has implemented a range of programs. These initiatives encompass distributing free books to all primary schoolchildren, providing free education for girls up to the university level, and granting stipends to girls attending rural secondary schools.

Gender equity goes further than simply enabling access to school; the curriculum also matters. There is a need to focus in schools on boosting girls’ confidence and capacity to equally participate in society. The type of instruction teachers are using in the classroom determines empowerment among females and gender equality. Successful projects in Peru and Malawi have conducted teacher training using teaching guides for gender-sensitive instruction. The teacher guides have been created by Visionaria Network from Peru, and Girls Empowerment Network from Malawi. They both received grants from WomenStrong International, an organization that finds, funds, strengthens, and shares women-driven solutions to transform lives. These projects creates guides and teacher trainings for teachers to support gender sensitivity in classrooms and support girls in recognizing and reaching their full potential.

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References

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