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E-Learning in Saudi Arabia Shifts from Planning to Execution under Pandemic

Part of the activities of the first days of school in a school in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)
Part of the activities of the first days of school in a school in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)
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E-Learning in Saudi Arabia Shifts from Planning to Execution under Pandemic

Part of the activities of the first days of school in a school in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)
Part of the activities of the first days of school in a school in Madinah, Saudi Arabia (SPA)

At the start, e-learning in Saudi Arabia was considered the future of education in the Kingdom. However, the coronavirus pandemic made studying online a vital aspect of learning today.

The option of distance learning is now available for primary courses that will launch this school year online before students go back to attending their classes in person.

While many countries struggled with the repercussions of the pandemic in the past academic year, Saudi Arabia fell back on all modern tech means available and the Kingdom’s remote education infrastructure to allow its students to keep learning.

This prompted the Kingdom’s remarkable success in overcoming education challenges posed by the pandemic.

Muhammad Al-Hejailan, associate professor of information technology and e-learning management at King Saud University in Riyadh, explains that the Education Ministry’s response to activating e-learning was swift and efficient.

The ministry, according to Al-Hejailan, launched its e-learning department in alignment with the Kingdom’s national vision for transformation, dubbed “Vision 2030.” The vision promotes across-the-board digital transformation in Saudi Arabia.

“This move stemmed from Vision 2030,” Al-Hejailan told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that the ministry’s administrative structure helped in planning and supporting the success of quality digital progress.

Despite all its negative fall-out, the coronavirus pandemic did manage to speed up digital transformation in the education sector.

“The pandemic abridged a multi-step process into a short step,” said Al-Hejailan, considering the matter positive for any future plans.

Al-Hejailan highlighted that high-quality Saudi human resources, compared to other countries, prompted this digital movement’s success.

Previous scholarship programs have created great potential in areas that help e-learning, from both the technical and educational aspects, added the academic.

Saleh Al-Atiwi, a professor of educational technology and software project management at King Saud University in Riyadh, confirmed that Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries to apply information and communication technology in all fields, including diverse learning environments.

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Varieties

Mass Poisoning Suspected as 18 Wolves Die in Italian National Park

FILE PHOTO: Ten wolves were released in a wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, southern France, December 16, 2004. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ten wolves were released in a wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, southern France, December 16, 2004. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo
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Mass Poisoning Suspected as 18 Wolves Die in Italian National Park

FILE PHOTO: Ten wolves were released in a wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, southern France, December 16, 2004. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ten wolves were released in a wolf wildlife park in Saint Martin Vesubie, southern France, December 16, 2004. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo

Italian authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 18 wolves and several other wild animals found in recent days in a national park, in what conservation groups say is one of the worst attacks on wildlife in Italy.

The carcasses were discovered across several locations in and around the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, a mountainous area in the center of the country long regarded as a stronghold for Italy's recovering wolf ⁠population.

The national park's ⁠authorities said the animals were most likely killed by poisoned bait, raising concerns for public safety as well as biodiversity, Reuters reported.

"The scale of what is happening is devastating," it said in a statement, expressing its "deep grief and disbelief".

Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin described the killings as "horrendous", adding that he had ordered ⁠Italy's forestry police to intensify inspections in an effort to identify those responsible.

"The ministry is particularly attentive and sensitive to the protection of a species that is so important for the balance of our ecosystem," he said in a statement.

Italy's protected wolf population has rebounded in recent decades after being driven close to extinction in the 20th century. A 2020-21 census suggested there were around 3,300 wolves nationwide.

However, in some rural areas, farmers complain of attacks on livestock.

Angelo Bonelli, a lawmaker with the ⁠opposition Greens ⁠and Left Alliance party, accused the government of failing to stand up to the hunting lobby, seen as close to right-wing parties in the ruling coalition.

"Swift investigations, tighter controls and exemplary sanctions are needed," he said.

Environment group Legambiente said three foxes and a buzzard had also been found dead in the same region, reinforcing fears of widespread, illegal poisoning.

"This is... an unprecedented attack on protected wildlife," it said in a statement.

Prosecutors in the nearby city of Sulmona have opened an investigation. Authorities have also urged local communities to report suspicious activity as tests continue to determine the exact cause of death.

Varieties

Scientists Trace Latest Interstellar Comet's Home to a Cold, Isolated Corner of the Milky Way

FILE - This image, provided by NASA, shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 30, 2025, about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. (NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA), M.-T. Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory), J. DePasquale (STScI) via AP, File)
FILE - This image, provided by NASA, shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 30, 2025, about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. (NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA), M.-T. Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory), J. DePasquale (STScI) via AP, File)
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Scientists Trace Latest Interstellar Comet's Home to a Cold, Isolated Corner of the Milky Way

FILE - This image, provided by NASA, shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 30, 2025, about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. (NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA), M.-T. Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory), J. DePasquale (STScI) via AP, File)
FILE - This image, provided by NASA, shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on Nov. 30, 2025, about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. (NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA), M.-T. Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory), J. DePasquale (STScI) via AP, File)

The comet that rambled past us from another star last year likely originated in a cold, isolated corner of the galaxy that had yet to gel into its own solar system, astronomers reported Thursday.

Comet 3I/Atlas is only the third interstellar visitor to be confirmed and quite possibly the oldest. Scientists estimate it could be up to 11 billion years old, more than twice as old as the sun.

A team led by the University of Michigan used the ALMA observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert to examine the comet last fall. The errant but harmless iceball was discovered last summer, giving NASA and the European Space Agency plenty of time to aim multiple space telescopes at it as it zoomed past Mars in October and made its closest approach to Earth in December. It's now well past Jupiter on its way out of our solar system for good, still visible only to the professionals.

In the study, scientists said they detected extremely high amounts of deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, in the comet's water. That suggests that the comet originated in a place considerably colder — before the star of this solar system even formed — than our own cosmic neighborhood, said the University of Michigan's Teresa Paneque-Carreno.

While our sun may have been surrounded by other newborn stars as it was forming, she noted, this comet's home star could have been more of a loner, leading to less heating and colder conditions.

The findings were published in Nature Astronomy.

The comet's precise place of origin is still unknown. Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope put the size of its nucleus somewhere between a quarter-mile and 3.5 miles (440 meters and 5.6 kilometers). It's hurtling away at 137,000 mph (220,000 kph).

Linking all these “puzzle pieces together may give an idea to how the planet-forming conditions were at these early times,” the Associated Press quoted Paneque-Carreno as saying in an email.

The first known interstellar object to stray into our celestial backyard — Oumuamua — was discovered by a telescope in Hawaii in 2017. Comet 2I/Borisov followed in 2019, named for the Crimean amateur astronomer who first spotted it.

Varieties

Surgery Begins in Riyadh for Most Complex Conjoined Twins Cases in the World

The Filipino conjoined twins (SPA)
The Filipino conjoined twins (SPA)
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Surgery Begins in Riyadh for Most Complex Conjoined Twins Cases in the World

The Filipino conjoined twins (SPA)
The Filipino conjoined twins (SPA)

The medical and surgical team of the Saudi Conjoined Twins Program began on Thursday the separation surgery for the Filipino conjoined twins Klea and Maurice Ann, who are joined at the head, at King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital in King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh.

The surgery is in implementation of the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

Supervisor-General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center and head of the medical and surgical team Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah stated in a press briefing that the conjoined Filipino twins arrived in the Kingdom on May 17, 2025.

He explained that following their admission, the medical team conducted extensive examinations and held multiple consultations, ultimately determining that the case was among the most complex in the world.

This was due to several critical medical factors, including the complex angle of the twins’ heads, extensive sharing of cerebral venous sinuses, and overlapping brain tissue.

He further noted that one of the twins, Klea, was suffering from heart failure and severe kidney atrophy leading to complete renal failure, which significantly increased the surgical risks associated with the separation procedure.

Al Rabeeah stated that the surgical team decided to carry out the operation in five stages, with the participation of 30 consultants, specialists, and nursing and technical staff across multiple disciplines, and noted that the procedure is expected to last approximately 24 hours.

He pointed out that this operation is the 70th procedure in the program, which, since its launch in 1990, has assessed and provided care for 157 conjoined twins from 28 countries across five continents.