TOKYO: At the Global G1 Conference 2022, Dr. Moudhi Aljamea of STC Academy and a member of the panel on “Crafting a Grand Design for Digital Education after the Covid Pandemic,” related how Saudi Telecom responded to the recent COVID-19 pandemic as far as education was concerned.

Aljamea said that, as with other countries, the pandemic took Saudi Arabia by surprise but noted that STC had been making serious efforts for a decade to develop and enable digital access and awareness in the Kingdom.  In fact, “working from home” methodology had been in place and in practice at STC before the pandemic, with 18 days per year to be worked from home. When the pandemic hit, the system was already up and running and STC staff were experienced with using it.

However, Aljamea said it was a challenge to switch from a limited time working at home to doing it virtually all of the time. STC saw adapting the system to an everyday practice as an opportunity. STC developed software to maintain the system during the pandemic to support productivity, communication and normal workplace socialization, and much of this software remains in use.  

Aljamea admitted that STC had not taken the importance of on-line learning capabilities and tools quite as seriously before the pandemic, but that has changed as a result of the pandemic.

As a company, STC provided free access for learning platforms for people studying at home and supplied more than 40,000 free SIM Cards for those who needed them. 

“We also provided access for people who were quarantined during the pandemic,” Aljamea said. “We tried as a company, as a kingdom and as a government to provide access to our citizens during the pandemic and to do the job right, because this was very important for us.”  

Aljamea also pointed out that STC, in collaboration with the government, donated recycled laptops to students who did not have them to ensure education could continue uniformly and to reduce the gap in the educational resources among students.

When asked about how teachers were forced to train and adapt to online learning, Aljmaea replied that compared to corporate training where trainers were more familiar with the most up-to-date methods, teaching general education teachers was a significant challenge at first. She said that considerable training was required and implemented in teaching online. It was not known how long online education would continue, so great reliance was placed on feedback and trial and error to optimize training methods as the situation developed. In this way, considerable progress was made.

In terms of the impact of social media reducing the online attention span of learners of all ages, Aljamea responded thatthey are experimenting with animation, optimizing the time periods for teaching individual items of information at one sitting, and innovating software design. However, more work needs to be done on this in Saudi Arabia, as elsewhere in the world.

G1 sets itself out as “a forum for the leaders of the next generation to gather, discuss, and paint a vision for the rebirth of Japan in a turbulent world.”