RIYADH — The Ministry of Education continues to dispatch more than 71 million textbooks to education departments in various regions and governorates across the Kingdom. A total of 71,863,645 textbooks for all levels of school education for the first semester will be distributed as part of the ministry’s efforts to prepare early for the next academic year. The ministry had completed early the phases of designing curricula for all phases, as well as reviewing and approving them, completing their printing, and following up their distribution according to a time plan that ensures that they reach all schools in all regions of the Kingdom well before the start of the school year.The strategic development team at the ministry continues its efforts to shift to digital curricula, and replace paper books with smart devices in accordance with a phased plan starting from the next academic year. The textbooks include the newly announced curricula for English for the primary grades, the book on life skills and family skills, digital skills, and critical thinking, as well as teacher’s guides for basic self-defense techniques at the primary level, the common annual curricula in secondary schools, apart from the development and revision of Islamic studies curricula. This is in addition to social studies, enhancing enrichment, applications and training in the subjects of science and mathematics. The ministry has completed printing 28,452,093 textbooks for the elementary phase; 14,767,573 textbooks for the intermediate phase; and 26,886,034 textbooks for the secondary phase with a total of 70,105,700 textbooks for public education schools. It has also finished printing 187,266 textbooks for the Holy Qur’an memorization schools, and 375,125 textbooks for schools of adult education, eradication of illiteracy, as well as for kindergartens and the illiterate community program. The ministry has also printed 28,100 textbooks in Braille for the visually impaired, in addition to 22,541 student activity books for intellectual education institutes and programs for all levels; 1,054,539 textbooks for international schools; 55,134 textbooks for Saudi schools abroad; 160,350 textbooks for Arab schools in Djibouti; 62,156 self-defense teacher’s guides, and 3,500 textbooks in Chinese language for secondary school.