Saudi Arabia's Digital and Distance Education : Experiences from the COVID-19 Pandemic and Opportunities for Educational Improvement
Faced with the crisis of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020, Saudi Arabia embarked on a journey to adapt the way in which schooling operated, enabling a continued education for children across the country. This was a uni...
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| Language: | English |
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Washington, DC: World Bank
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099655001182272835/P1755140d8a8990640b7b10cfbb94f036c3 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37072 |
| Summary: | Faced with the crisis of the
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020,
Saudi Arabia embarked on a journey to adapt the way in which
schooling operated, enabling a continued education for
children across the country. This was a unique journey, and
one that will have lasting impacts on education in Saudi
Arabia. The World Bank studied this journey in detail over
the 2020-21 school year, as the pandemic was underway. This
report compiles the results of this study and provides a
comprehensive review of the experiences of digital and
distance education in Saudi Arabia, along with an analysis
of opportunities for future educational improvement. The
study aimed to answer three main questions. Firstly, how
well did Saudi Arabia provide for, and achieve, continued
education of kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) students during
the COVID-19 pandemic Secondly, what were the strengths of
Saudi Arabia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12
education And finally, what are the opportunities for
educational improvement following the digital and distance
education experience To answer these questions, a variety of
data gathering instruments were designed and implemented by
the World Bank team. The data sources included focus groups;
surveys of nationally representative groups of school
principals, teachers, students, parents, and supervisors;
virtual classroom observations; and interviews with key
personnel. Analyses of these data informed the conclusions
and recommendations presented in this report, which were
reviewed by global experts in the fields of education and
education technologies. |
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