Mona Abdul Mohsen Al-Aiban

A Generation Struggles to Read... Who Is Responsible?

July 12, 2026 - 00:20 | Last updated July 12, 2026 - 00:20

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When a student reaches the end of primary school unable to read fluently, writes a paragraph full of errors, or cannot express a simple idea in correct language, this is not a student's problem; it is a systemic educational problem that must bravely confront itself.

It is unacceptable to convince ourselves that these are isolated cases, while the educational field witnesses, year after year, a noticeable decline in reading and writing skills among a significant number of students. Teachers know it, parents feel it, universities are beginning to feel its impact, and the job market will later pay the price.

I say this from the reality of my specialization in the Arabic language, and through long years spent teaching it. I have come to believe that the Arabic language has lost a lot when it lost its identity as an integrated set of skills, each with its own time and importance, and turned into a single curriculum that tries to do everything in a time that is insufficient for anything.

Calligraphy was a lesson that nurtured patience and precision, not just improving appearance. Dictation was a daily exercise that built confidence in writing, not a fleeting test. Reading was a gradual project to build a reader, not just texts read and then pages turned. Expression was a space where the student learned how to think before speaking, and how to organize thoughts before writing. Then grammar, syntax, literature, and rhetoric come after the student stands on solid linguistic ground.

Today, however, skills have been crowded into a single book, and time has become too tight for all of them, so basic skills leave the early grades incomplete. When the foundation is weak, we should not be surprised that the entire structure is weak.

What is required is not to cram students with more information, but rather to give them more time to master indispensable skills. Language is not acquired quickly, nor is it built by projects and activities alone, but rather through daily practice, repetition, continuous assessment, and gradual progression that respects the nature of learning.

The biggest mistake we can make is to treat weak reading and writing as a problem of the teacher, student, or family. The truth is that the issue is much bigger than that. It is a matter of curriculum, priorities, educational philosophy, and a decision from a higher authority. The Arabic language is not just a subject on the schedule; it is the tool through which the student learns all other subjects. If the tool is broken, everything that follows is broken.

We do not need to defend the Arabic language only because it is the language of the Quran, but also because it is the language of thinking. A student who does not read well will not understand well, one who does not write well will not express himself well, and one who does not possess a strong language will not possess the learning tools needed in any discipline, whatever it may be.

The time has come to ask the question we have long avoided: Has the current method of teaching Arabic achieved the results we aspired to? If the answer is no, then why do we fear revision?

Curriculum revision is not an admission of failure; it is respect for results. Educational decisions are not measured by good intentions, but by what they produce in the minds of students.

Restore the Arabic language's identity. Restore calligraphy's status, dictation's presence, expression's space, reading's time, and writing's practice. Not because we want to replicate the past, but because we want a future where male and female students graduate possessing the first of their educational rights: to read, to write, and to think in their language with confidence and proficiency.

And let us remember that every educational reform begins with language, and every stumble in it extends its impact to every subject, every university, every profession, and every future. It is not painful for a child to make a mistake in reading; the painful thing is that we get used to this mistake until it becomes normal!