Shaping Tomorrow: Education Leaders Unite at the 2025 Forum

On February 25th & 26th in Riyadh, the first edition of the Invest in Education Forum was held under the theme, “Invest for Impact… Empowerment for Education Transformation.”

The purpose behind the form is a trifecta, which is mainly to serve as a platform for education sector investors, explore investment opportunities and public-private partnerships, and drive sustainable development throughout the KSA’s education systems.

The forum included several dialogue sessions with government and private agency officials and educational leaders while participants explored strategic investment directions in education, discussing the available opportunities and potential within this sector.

During the forum, the Minister of Education, Mr. Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Benyan, took the stage as the keynote speaker, unveiling Saudi Arabia’s plans, goals, status, and alignment with Vision 2030.

Throughout his presentation, he noted that 2025’s budget allocated for education is the second largest, amounting to 201 billion riyals. He underscored that education needs to be unified across different sectors, and they are currently working with government agencies to bring it to fruition as seamlessly as possible.

During his speech, he stated, “Our objective is for Saudi education to rank among the top 20 educational systems worldwide, in alignment with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.”

The Ministry’s support and commitment to cement sustainable educational projects to drastically increase human capital value is without question, but cooperation and significant investments must continue to occur between the public and private sectors to address this effectively and efficiently.

The forum served as a gathering place for education sector investors to explore the present conditions and future opportunities in educational investment.

To date, the private sector contributes 17% of the current budget; the goal is to increase this contribution to 25% by 2030 through incentives and government-backed initiatives, making it more attractive to private investors.

The expected investment projections through opportunities in the education sector could reach 50 billion riyals by then, as the Ministry is currently facilitating around 5,000 investment prospects. Several agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) were established during the forum to enhance collaboration and investment in education.

Ongoing investments, such as those that focus on building schools, overseeing operations, delivering services, and creating content, are attractive in the eyes of many private investors.

From a governmental perspective, it’s already contributing an unprecedented amount to the sector, aligning the budget in tandem with Saudi Arabia’s national growth.

During this two-day event, attendees also examined private education investors’ challenges alongside opportunities and those that might arise amid various partnership models between the public and private sectors. Notable success stories from educational partnerships and attended workshops and discussions centered on private education were shared as examples of what kind of educational transformation can transpire through cooperation and sound investment strategieswithout leaving by the wayside the main directive- to better educate Saudi students to equip and prepare them for a more robust future. Making substantial improvements in education quality, knowledge economy, and learning outcomes by the target of Vision 2030 is well within reach, and mediums such as the Invest in Education Forum drastically transform goals into realities

Prof. Alaa Alghamdi

@ayghamd