Education has always been the seed that nurtures culture. The strong and solid alliance between them is among the demands of cultural development in order for us to achieve the aspirations of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.
Since day one, the strategy of the Ministry of Culture has been focused on education out of my and my colleague’s belief that it is the cornerstone of any project aimed at developing human capabilities in any field. We have studied the market of cultural sectors and we believed that promising opportunities were available in the sector as our country witnessed successive developments amid its historic period of reform and transformation.
Indeed, the 2019 study found that the opportunities were vast and available. Here, I will quote some of the figures produced by the study because numbers are the language that our inspiring leader, the Crown Prince, prefers:
The music and performing arts and natural heritage sector, for example, boast several opportunities in the market, and yet, the number of graduates in music degrees from higher education and public institutions was zero at the time. The study expects that the figure will grow to 29,117 by 2030, meaning if we don’t act now, a major gap will emerge between supply and demand. The same applies to performing arts where demand in nine years’ time may rise to over 2,000 graduates.
We have embarked on implementing the recommendations of international and local experts. Indeed, the ministry has in actual and productive cooperation with our colleagues in the Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, Education and Training Evaluation Commission, concerned institutions and private sector kicked off efforts to raise awareness about the importance of cultural specialties. These efforts are part of a long journey that begins with children and does not stop with university students.
These steps to bolster cultural sectors in general and higher education, in cooperation with our partners in the Ministry of Education and other academic institutions, were not a passing whim, but rather a necessity demanded by the cultural strategy. The Ministry of Education and its minister have been the best partners in our journey towards cementing culture and arts among our students so that we can reap rewards that befit the Kingdom’s standing, culture and history.
The Kingdom has offered, with the support of the wise leadership, a strategic step in cultural exchange, whereby our students seek an education at some of the world’s most prestigious universities. Such a step will help promote Saudi culture, arts and values to the world, thereby building more bridges of culture around the world.
And we have also started, along with concerned authorities, in issuing licenses for specialized institutes. The first licenses were granted for the establishment of two music institutes in the Kingdom. Opportunities will also be provided to the private and third sectors to apply for cultural training licenses through a dedicated platform that will be unveiled soon. Work is also underway to establish specialized institutes and arts academies.
We are also working on the “learn for life” policy that aims to develop cultural capabilities. The effort is taking place in cooperation with several partners in all fields and cultural bodies will indeed march forward to continue to create teaching and training opportunities in all cultural specialties in order to develop the rich talents in our country and offer the highest quality options to our citizens. Despite the extraordinary circumstances that gripped the world last year, the innovative solutions and directives of our leadership have thankfully allowed us to overcome the challenges.
In recent years, we have seen encouraging initiatives from university institutions and the private sector in including promising academic programs in several colleges that are considered institutes of civilization and history that have helped speed up development in the country since its establishment.
Our work today is ongoing and relentless to meet the aspirations of our wise leadership. We have a lot of work ahead of us in the academic field to develop the capabilities in the cultural sectors and work on a long-term strategy that would allow us to reap rewards that befit Vision 2030. This demands cooperation that would in turn create more empowerment and stimulating environments in our cultural sector. Moreover, their results will not be limited to the Kingdom, but they will go beyond it to reach international horizons. Culture, after all, is the ambassador of all civilizations, capitals and peoples.
In conclusion, I would like to stress that the land that has birthed major innovators in all cultural and artistic fields with modest infrastructure is capable of exporting innovators to the world with a strategy that bolsters culture and motivates innovators. This journey begins in the early years of education as the future belongs to us through the determination of our people, whom the Crown Prince compared to the Mount Tuwaiq that rises in the heart of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
