The Minister of Education, Omar al-Razaz, said that Saturday will witness the first step towards specifying 20% of the time students spend in school, for different activities, including arts, music and sports, Khaberni website reported.

Al-Razaz told a local radio station that due to the increased size of books and number of classes, both students and teachers are under continuous stress, leading to the cancellation of music, arts and sports classes and replacing it with other academic subjects.

“The class where students stay from 8am to 2pm became a very theoretical place. Meanwhile, students need to play and to spiritually grow, in order to avoid terrorist ideologies.”

According to al-Razaz, the most important way to combat extremism is to find ways to express different feelings.