Saudi Arabia: Women and Children

1. This week I watched with particular interest as Saudi women have finally been able to exercise their right to drive. My interest is driven by a visit I made to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for an international conference on early learning in mid-April.  This was the 6th year of their national education conference; the theme this year was early childhood education. For three days, government officials, administrators, professors, and early childhood educators from Saudi Arabia (90%) and around the world (10%) shared their expertise related to the importance of the early years in children’s lives and the challenges of creating quality programs with highly trained teachers.

Because of what I learned from my visit, I was not surprised to read of the positive reaction men had to Saudi women finally getting the right to drive. The women I met in Riyadh were strong, smart, friendly and ambitious. Most women wore burkas which covered them from head to toe in black, however behind their modest dress were women eager to connect, learn and tell me what they are doing in their country to improve education for all children. The many men at the conference, who were outnumbered two to one by women, showed great deference to the female presenters, even though it is unlikely that many of them had ever had a woman teacher. Despite multiple languages, presenters and participants showed deep respect for each other’s expertise and asked questions that indicated an intense willingness to learn.

The trip and the conference contained many highlights. First and foremost were the women leaders. Jenan M. Alahmed was instrumental in putting together the conference. She and many professors from around Saudi Arabia were totally focused on how the country can build the best early learning system for the country’s young children. Unlike the US where we are now focused on children birth to age five, Saudi Arabia is starting with five year olds.  Despite the “authoritarian” sense we have of this country, the Saudi early education leaders are considering using the Reggio Emilia Approach, a pedagogy I love, but associate more with freedom and individual rights than despotism.

Part of the conference was a large exhibit hall and many families with young children merely came to see the exhibits. Many women working in the exhibit hall asked where I was from and eagerly asked me to check out their booths—and take a selfie. My favorite was a booth where children (and I) were able to pretend we were checking in and boarding an airplane. 

Conference organizers, aware of visiting foreigner’s interest in seeing something other than the beautiful five star hotel and huge conference center (but without wifi), took us to the wonderful local market (great goods and prices but not Istanbul) and the National Museum which is more impressive than I expected but not up the Smithsonian standards—we are spoiled!

 My keynote was entitled The Government's Role in Early Education: Lessons from the United States”. I described growth of early learning the United States at the federal state, and local levels; factors that have promoted and impeded success; and the many challenges that lie ahead. I concluded with specific recommendations for Saudi Arabia and other countries, as well. Email me at [email protected] if you want a copy of the slides.

I will be watching with intense interest to see how women driving and early education evolve in Saudi Arabia during the next few years. I know that over the past 50 years, the Saudi education system has focused on increasing the rate of literacy — and now it is among the highest in the world. Another phase revolved around building of schools, colleges and universities to accommodate the Saudi population that increased from an estimated five million people in 1970 to more than 32 million today. So perhaps in the next five years we might see a stellar early learning system emerge in this county.

While I deplore what is happening in Yemen and the bloody history of this male dominated country, I am hoping that their commitment to their youngest children will help build a more democratic country that allows women to drive and children to flourish.