Reviving the Heritage of Lifelong Learning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
The land of Arabia has a long tradition of the pursuit of teaching and learning throughout life that dates back at least to the birth of Islam and probably well before that. There are many passages in the Noble Quran that exhort Man to keep learning and teaching as well as the many sayings from the Prophet (PBUH). The early scholars certainly follow lifelong learning and teaching very closely: thus, we have the collectors of the sayings of the prophet who spend their whole life seeking and verifying and teaching from the sayings. In present Saudi Arabia there are no organised and coherent efforts towards reviving lifelong teaching and learning to the masses although this is very important, especially since Saudi Arabia is moving more and more towards becoming a knowledge economy. Given the geography and the culture of Saudi Arabia, elearning technologies will play a major role in the delivery and access to teaching and learning. This paper discusses the present state of lifelong learning in Saudi Arabia and will propose some initiatives involving elearning technologies that have the potential to revive the heritage of lifelong learning.
