World Children’s Day, observed annually on 20 November by countries around the world, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, plays a vital role in highlighting children’s rights and the need to provide a safe and supportive environment, ensuring their access to education and healthcare, and protecting them from violence and discrimination. This contributes to their well-being and guarantees their active participation in shaping their own future.
Investing in child development is a fundamental pillar of sustainable development. It requires strengthening integration between families, schools, and relevant institutions to ensure children grow up in a balanced and healthy environment. This occasion serves as a global reminder that protecting childhood is not the responsibility of one individual or a single entity, but a shared responsibility that requires both international and local cooperation to secure a better future for coming generations.
Celebrations of World Children’s Day include a wide range of activities organized by various institutions and sectors across the Kingdom, along with awareness programs, workshops, and meaningful cultural events that introduce society to children’s rights, encourage children to express their opinions, and develop their skills and abilities in diverse fields. Investing in children today guarantees a better future for them.
The Ministry of Education has established comprehensive foundations for early childhood development, covering physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth for male and female students, and supporting their synchronized development from the ages of 3 to 8. Each stage builds upon the skills acquired in the previous phase. These policies were designed to address the specific needs of young learners, improve educational performance, and develop institutional frameworks to prepare children for higher stages of education.
According to the Ministry’s regulatory guide issued by a Council of Ministers’ resolution dated 2/9/1440 AH, the general objective of the General Administration of Early Childhood under the General Education Agency is to provide high-quality educational services for children from the age of three through the third grade, and to monitor early childhood performance indicators to ensure students’ readiness to enter basic education.
The Ministry’s initiatives include expanding and developing kindergartens across all regions of the Kingdom to achieve the strategic goal of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. This is supported by the indicator of gross enrollment ratios in kindergartens, with the aim of increasing kindergarten enrollment to 90% by 2030. This is complemented by the “Early Childhood – Quick Wins” initiative, which leverages material, human and financial resources to boost enrollment in early grades by assigning female teachers to teach both boys and girls starting from the 1441 AH academic year.
The Ministry also implemented projects to establish a dedicated children’s television channel to support its educational direction, reviewed and updated regulations and systems related to early childhood education, enhanced the skills of early childhood educators, opened and built a number of schools (kindergartens and early childhood schools), and prepared studies supporting the initiatives and projects of the General Administration of Early Childhood. In addition, learning environments in kindergartens have been improved using the “ECERS Scale” (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale), through scientific methodology and standardized tools, in partnership with King Abdulaziz University, to assess behaviors directed toward improving the quality of educational environments in public and private kindergartens.
The Personal Safety Program for the Protection of Children from Abuse, implemented by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND) and UNICEF, aims to enhance personal safety values and skills among children and those responsible for their upbringing, including teachers and parents, by providing a healthy educational environment that develops preventive skills against all forms of abuse and neglect.
The Ministry also launched the Mother and Child Education Program, which helps mothers provide their children with essential cognitive, physical, emotional and social skills appropriate to their developmental characteristics at the age of five. This program is designed to support and guide mothers in raising their children, as well as a remedial program for children who were unable to enroll in kindergartens.
The developmental early learning standards for kindergarten-aged children (3–6 years) in Saudi Arabia help institutions and stakeholders directly involved in child upbringing and education to understand expectations of what a child should know and be able to do. This document serves as a descriptive guide outlining the knowledge, behaviors and skills that contribute to building a child’s personality in later stages of learning, enabling them to become productive, responsible and active members of society. تو
It is worth noting that World Children’s Day reaffirms the principles established by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, which remains the primary international reference for protecting children’s rights worldwide.