Number of private schools in the Kingdom increased by 7% during a year

The number of private education schools in Saudi Arabia across all regions of the Kingdom jumped from 6,847 private schools in 1444 corresponding to 2023 to 7,337 private schools in 1445 corresponding to 2024, an increase of 490 private schools and an increase of nearly 7% over the previous year. This increase includes international, foreign and private schools.

According to statistics from the education sector in Saudi Arabia, the number of students enrolled in private schools increased from 1.0 million students in 1444 to 1.1 million students in 1445 and an increase of 10% over the previous year, while the number of teachers in private schools increased from 75,000 in 1445 to 82,000 in 1446

The Kingdom seeks, according to Vision 2030, to increase the private sector’s contribution to education. Yousef Al-Bunyan, Minister of Education, said earlier; Investment and privatization are an integral part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and aim to integrate the public and private sectors. Al-Bunyan stressed that the Ministry of Education has launched many initiatives to support the private sector in the fields of education, training, and investment development in early childhood, kindergartens, and special education, in addition to providing investment opportunities for the private sector in educational facilities and private education, noting that “Education” welcomes partnership with the private sector in line with the transformation witnessed by the ministry at all levels. Knight Frank said in a report on the education sector in Saudi Arabia that private schools offering international curricula witnessed a growth of 24.4% between 2018 and 2022, amid expectations that there will be a need for 214,000 additional school seats in these schools until 2035. Saudi Arabia’s spending on the education sector in the budget amounted to 201 billion riyals in 2025, with the aim of establishing schools, colleges, university cities, and external scholarships for the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program, in addition to supporting research, development and innovation, establishing university hospitals, and supporting knowledge sources.