Official government website of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 
His Excellency Professor Dr. Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Dawood, President of the University, emphasized the importance of the Kingdom's participation in international tests, through which we can identify the advanced level of education in the Kingdom. He pointed out that the importance of this participation is not limited to obtaining high scores, but rather reflects the attention given by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince – may God protect them – to developing education and the support they provide to this sector to excel at the local and global levels.
The university president extended his thanks and appreciation to His Excellency the Minister of Education, Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al Al-Sheikh, during his speech at the symposium organized remotely by the College of Education at the university, titled "The Role of Community Participation in Enhancing the Kingdom's Results in International Tests," held today, Wednesday, corresponding to 15/5/1442 AH. He praised His Excellency's keenness for the Kingdom to occupy the position it deserves and the level that we all hope for and aspire to in such tests and other classifications that reflect the reality of what we strive for in our education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
And "Dawod" valued the efforts of those who organized this seminar, His Excellency the Vice Minister of Education, Dr. Nasser Al-Oqaili, and the Vice President of the University for Academic Affairs, Dr. Mohammed Al-Othaib, and everyone from the university colleagues who worked to organize this seminar, asking God Almighty to grant success to the participants in reaching results and outcomes that assist and support the efforts of the Ministry of Education in achieving advanced positions, reflecting our ambitious reality in which we aspire to be in the first ranks always, God willing.
From his side, Dean of the College of Education, Dr. Khaled Al-Humaydi, explained during his speech that international tests are an important tool for evaluating educational systems and helping countries identify their strengths and weaknesses to work on improving and enhancing their processes. He noted that the Ministry of Education has paid great attention to international tests such as "TIMSS," and has worked to spread the culture of testing and the importance of competitive participation in it, especially in the 2019 version, compared to previous tests that suffered from a lack of motivation and awareness of their importance.
"Al-Humaidhi" pointed out the importance of not stopping at evaluating our engagement with international test results based solely on rankings and comparisons with other countries, without delving deeper into the test results and analyzing their various tools. From this perspective, the idea of holding this seminar at Qassim University came about as one of its regular contributions to anything that would raise the performance level of our male and female students and our educational institutions. With the participation of a number of distinguished speakers, this will undoubtedly lead to improving outcomes and achieving the highest results in such tests in the future and competing with developed countries in this regard.
This seminar, moderated by Dr. Abdullah Al-Harbi, Professor of Curricula and Science Education at the College of Education at the university, discussed a number of axes related to the role of community participation in enhancing the Kingdom's results in international tests. These included: the role of education departments, educational institutions, and schools in achieving remarkable accomplishments in the Kingdom's results in international tests. This was presented by Professor Dr. Saleh Al-Nassar, Secretary-General of Education Departments and Secretary-General of the Education Award for Excellence at the Ministry of Education. During his presentation, he reviewed the achievement made by the Kingdom in the 2019 TIMSS tests, and the procedures taken by the education departments with the support of His Excellency the Minister of Education to prepare for these tests in less than a hundred days. He also reviewed the history of the Kingdom's participation in these tests, starting from 2003, and spreading the culture of dealing with international tests among teachers and parents, believing in the role of the family and the importance of its support, until a significant increase in readiness was achieved, with a noticeable rise in the Kingdom's results in the 2019 tests compared to 2015, where it was the second highest country among G20 countries in improving results.
The second axis addressed the role of teachers and educational staff in enhancing the Kingdom's results in international tests. It was presented by Professor Dr. Khalid Al-Muthim, Professor of Curriculum and Mathematics Teaching Methods at the College of Education at the university. He reviewed large-scale international assessment studies and their role in evaluating entire societies, the importance of this in measuring the quality of the educational system, and supporting educational reforms. He also touched upon the importance of utilizing the results of these tests to conduct longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons to understand the factors influencing those results and their links. Furthermore, he highlighted the significant role of the teacher as the primary actor in improving the academic level of their students, shedding light on teacher training and assessment practices, as well as their professional attributes. He emphasized the necessity of focusing on and developing higher-order thinking skills in students, and the integration and cooperation among educational institutions to develop teachers' capabilities.
The third axis addressed the role of families and guardians in enhancing the Kingdom's results in international exams. It was presented by Professor Dr. Saeed Al-Shamrani, Professor of Science Education in the Department of Curricula and Teaching Methods, Director of the Center of Excellence for Research in Developing Science and Mathematics Education at King Saud University. He discussed the role of the family and the efforts made in this regard, which fall into two directions: first, ensuring that the available data reflects reality, and the Ministry has made great efforts in this direction. The second direction is development. He also deeply reviewed aspects of partnership between guardians and schools in supporting learning.
