The education and training sectors plays a vital role in building a future workforce equipped to succeed in a knowledge-based, digital economy as the Kingdom pursues Vision 2030, the national programme for economic diversification. With the government’s strong focus on expanding access to quality education from early childhood to adult learning, Saudi Arabia is expected to build on gains made on improving women’s enrolment rates in higher education, translating into rising women’s labour force participation, and increased uptake of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The education sector, at all levels, is poised for expansion backed by rising demand, population growth in a young demographic and robust government spending.
Structure & Oversight
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is the main government entity responsible for regulating and supervising the Kingdom’s education system. It oversees the development of curricula and standards, sets policy and allocates resources to schools nationwide. The Education and Training Evaluation Commission is the government agency responsible for evaluation and training across the education sector, as well as for licensing professionals, while the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) oversees vocational education. Launched in 2020, the Kingdom’s Sectoral Skills Councils are tasked with aligning education and training strategy to meet labour skills and demands.
As Saudi Arabia seeks to promote digital skills and literacy among schoolchildren and adult learners, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Authority and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology are increasingly playing an important role in shaping education policy and school curricula. The National Institute for Educational Professional Development spearheads teacher training, with 200,000 teachers enrolled in training programmes, and 40,000 principals and vice-principals in leadership development programmes as of 2024. Established in 2019, the Council of Universities’ Affairs is the government entity responsible for regulating and developing the higher education sector and enhancing the quality of education and scientific research.
Government Spending
In the 2025 budget, SR201bn ($53.6bn) was earmarked for the education sector, representing 16% of total public spending for that year. This was the same amount allocated in 2024 and a slight decline from 2023, when SR210bn ($56bn) was allocated to the sector, accounting for 17% of the total budget. Shaping public education spending and strategy is the Human Capability Development Programme (HCDP) launched in 2021 under Vision 2030. Among HCDP’s objectives are to preserve the Arabic language, raise enrolment in early childhood educational institutions and for students with disabilities, improve access to quality education in rural areas, enhance learning and assessment outcomes, raise the global ranking of Saudi Arabia’s universities and expand TVET provision.
Public Sector Education
Education in Saudi Arabia is compulsory for all children from ages six to 15. Government-funded public schools provide free education for Saudi citizens, with about 80% of children attending public schools, according to mid-2025 MoE estimates. In 2022, 253,854 students were enrolled in public schools across 3377 schools in the Kingdom, including kindergartens, of which 29,456 were foreign students, according to the most recent available data from the MoE.
Expanding access to early childhood education from ages three to six and addressing the lack of specialised teaching staff in kindergartens is a government priority, with progress made in recent years. In 2024, the country’s kindergarten enrolment rate rose to 36.7%, equivalent to 420,000 students, up from 21% in 2019. The government aims to increase the kindergarten enrolment rate to 90% by 2030.
Saudi Arabia has a young population. Nearly 70% of Saudis are under the age of 35, according to 2024 government figures, and there is a large and growing school-age population. This is spurring demand for school placements, with the number of students in primary and secondary schools projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.6% and reach about 8m by 2027.
In contrast to private schools, public schools typically have a stronger focus on Arabic language, Islamic studies and religious education, and follow a standard curriculum developed by the MoE. Efforts are under way to modernise and adapt the curricula to meet labour market skills and demands. In late 2024 the government announced the rollout of Mandarin lessons for primary and middle school students, targeting 102,000 public school students, with 175 educators teaching the language as part of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and China. The pilot programme is set to expand to high school students by 2029. Another focus is on increasing sports programmes, with the government’s 2025 education budget highlighting expenditures for the construction of sports halls in public schools for girls and improving school infrastructure.
Additionally, as part of efforts to promote digital literacy and innovation under the Vision 2030 banner, Saudi Arabia launched a new AI curriculum in August 2025. More than 6m public school students, from primary through high school, will learn the basics of AI, coding and algorithms from 2026 onwards. Saudi Arabia has made strides in integrating technology into its education system with the online government-run platform Madrasati launching in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It integrates AI, virtual classrooms and assessments. Used by 6m students and more than 500,000 teachers across the Kingdom, the platform was awarded a prize for the best e-learning platform by UNESCO’s World Summit on the Information Society High-Level Event in 2025.
Specialised Programmes
Furthermore, in July 2025 the Kingdom launched five new specialised technology high schools for gifted students across Riyadh, Al Madinah, the Eastern Province, Qassim and Jeddah. Each school will blend the national curriculum with technical instruction in high-demand sectors including computer science, AI, mechatronics and cybersecurity, reflecting the Kingdom’s aim to raise digital literacy among schoolchildren. This is part of government efforts to expand education provision for gifted students in public schools, with the number of students enrolled in the National Talented Identification Programme reaching 84,000 students in 2024, up 10% from 2023.
Since the 2000s the public education system has significantly shifted from rote learning and memorisation to skills-based interactive learning and critical thinking. The curriculum has evolved, placing a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects from early grades, largely aligned with global assessment standards.
However, global tests show challenges remain in raising academic attainment among Saudi school children. According to the latest 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment tests conducted by the OECD, which measures maths, science and reading skills among 15-year-olds worldwide, Saudi Arabia showed an improvement from 2018. However, in a bid to improve and measure attainment levels across public and private schools, the MoE launched the National Programme for School Evaluation, Accreditation and Ranking in 2024, which aims to enhance how student performance and schools are assessed. More than 24,000 schools have carried out self-evaluation on a digital platform covering all of the schools in Kingdom, while 19,000 schools have undergone external evaluation. In addition, 1m students were assessed through national tests to measure educational performance in 2024.
Private Sector Education
Saudi Arabia’s private education sector remains small, with 17% to 18% of students, or about 33,000 children, attending private schools, according to estimates by the MoE in the second quarter of 2025. Due to its small size there is significant growth potential in the sector. In 2025 the value of Saudi Arabia’s private education market for primary and secondary education reached $13.3bn and is expected to increase to $23.6bn by 2030 at a CAGR of 12.2%, according to Mordor Intelligence. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia’s school-age population is rising at an annual rate of 2.5% and is projected to hit 7.2m students by 2030, an expansion that requires 1.2m additional seats across the Kingdom’s primary and secondary schools.
Saudi Arabia is expected to remain the GCC’s largest education market, accounting for 64.6% of the region’s total student enrolments by 2029, including primary, secondary and tertiary segments, driven by economic growth and a steady increase in the school-age population, according to a May 2025 report by investment bank Alpen Capital. Demand for private education among wealthy Saudi families seeking bilingual learning aligned with international standards, along with a growing expatriate community looking to send their children to international schools, particularly in Riyadh and Jeddah, is expected to drive growth in the private education sector in the coming years. Moreover, the government’s regional headquarters initiative launched in March 2023, which requires international firms to establish their regional headquarters in Riyadh, is expected to raise demand from the expatriate community, and ongoing giga-projects will require that schools are to be built in new cities like NEOM, a vast urban and industrial development project being built along the Red Sea coast.
International Influence
Private schools have greater autonomy than their public counterparts. They manage staff recruitment and pay, admissions criteria, internal organisation structure and the school calendar. Still, the MoE oversees private education and schools are expected to align with the national curriculum. Most international schools teach the UK or US curriculum, as well as the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, taught in Arabic or English depending on the subject. At the secondary level, most students sit international exams like the British International General Certificate of Secondary Education and IB, as well as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) exams. Scores for the SATs and ACTs are included in applications for top US universities.
The privatisation of schools in Saudi Arabia has gained momentum since early 2021 when the government first announced plans to privatise 60 schools as part of efforts led by the country’s National Centre for Privatisation & Public-Private Partnership to attract foreign investment. Opportunities for private investment in Saudi Arabia’s education and training sectors are abundant, including the building and operation of new schools and universities, the creation of digital learning platforms, teacher training and evaluation programmes, and the adoption of smart technology in classrooms.
Additionally, UK education providers and consultancy services are looking to tap into growing demand, with more international schools opening branches in the Kingdom. Notable examples of UK schools opening branches in Saudi Arabia in 2025 alone include Sherborne School Jeddah and Buckswood School Riyadh. To support UK education providers seeking to establish a presence in the Kingdom, in August 2025 the Saudi British Joint Business Council announced the launch of a new project aimed at identifying and addressing the barriers faced by UK private schools and universities. Among the challenges are the price and availability of land to build new school campuses and hiring and retaining staff amid a global shortage of qualified teachers of STEM subjects.
Universities
Most Saudi students in higher education attend public universities, which is free at the undergraduate level for Saudi citizens, while private universities account for 5% of student enrolment. In 2022 global consultancy firm KPMG noted that the government remains the key source of funding for universities, both for student enrolment and for research programmes. The Kingdom has a large and growing tertiary education sector, with 2m students enrolled across 62 colleges, universities and institutions as of 2024. Of that figure, 1m students were enrolled in undergraduate degree programmes and only a small number at the graduate level, with 85,000 students pursuing master’s degrees and 18,000 a doctorate. More students are graduating in STEM subjects as part of the Kingdom’s broader aims to promote innovation. The OECD notes that in 2022, 18.1% of degree-level graduates in Saudi Arabia were in STEM compared to an OECD average of 2%, reflecting a strong emphasis on STEM degrees and diplomas in the country’s higher education sector.
As part of public efforts to decentralise the higher education system, a law passed in 2019 grants public universities more autonomy in deciding academic focus and financial priorities. There is rising demand for tertiary education, with the Kingdom needing some 900,000 more higher education places by 2030, partly driven by the rising numbers of women attending university and international students.
Higher Education
Among Saudi Arabia’s most renowned public universities is the King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh, the Kingdom’s oldest and largest university, as well as King Abdulaziz University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). A key government priority is to elevate the standing of the country’s universities in the global education rankings. According to the 2025 Academic Ranking of World Universities, which ranks 1000 universities worldwide, KSU is the highest-placed Saudi university in the Arab region.
Other Saudi institutions listed in the ranking’s top 500 were KAUST in the group ranked 201-300, Saudi Arabia’s women-only Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) (301-400) and King Khalid University (401-500). In the 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) index, which ranks 2092 institutions from 115 countries worldwide, KFUPM was listed among the top 200 at 176, while 29 other Saudi universities appeared in the rankings. In the most recent 2024 THE rankings for Arab universities, of 238 institutions from 16 countries, Saudi Arabia took five of the top-10 spots, including the top three. KAUST was ranked as the number-one university in the Arab region, thanks to strong performances in the research environment, society and research quality pillars, followed by KFUPM and KSU. As part of its Vision 2030 objectives, the government aims to have at least five Saudi universities in the top 200 in international rankings by 2030. However, the low enrolment rate at the postgraduate level limits research output, making it difficult for Saudi universities to compete with the world’s top universities.
The Kingdom has expanded scholarships for Saudi students to pursue higher education abroad at top universities, mainly through its flagship Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Programme. As of 2024, 23,400 students were enrolled in the top-200 global institutions and graduates from the scholarship programme increased by 92% from 2023 to 2024. The programme aims to send 70,000 students on international scholarships by 2030.
Another MoE priority is to foster global cooperation and attract leading universities to establish campuses in the Kingdom to enhance competitiveness and the quality of higher education. Saudi Arabia has opened up opportunities for international universities following a law passed in 2019, and later amended in 2023, making it easier to set up branch campuses in the Kingdom. As of October 2025 Saudi Arabia had approved licences for five international universities. This includes the US Arizona State University, Australia’s University of Wollongong, the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Spain’s IE University.
In April 2025 the US University of New Haven announced it signed a memorandum of understanding with the MoE to open a branch campus in Riyadh accommodating some 13,000 students in autumn 2026. This Riyadh campus will feature a College of Business and Digital Innovation, a College of Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, and a College of Arts and Applied Sciences, in alignment with Vision 2030 that seek to promote the growth of non-oil industries. In a bid to promote the creative economy, in September 2025 the government announced the launch of its first dedicated arts university, Riyadh University of Arts, with 13 colleges slated to accommodate 30,000 students by 2040.
Vocational Training
Led by the TVTC, the government has ramped up efforts to expand technical and vocational programmes, and in particular to target women, as the Kingdom aims to develop a skills-based workforce across key economic sectors in line with Vision 2030. Employment of vocational and technical education graduates within six months of graduation rose to 49.8% in 2024, reflecting growing alignment with vocational education and labour market needs. Growing demand in AI, robotics, technology, renewable energy, health care, hospitality and tourism, among other fields, is expected to shape the job market and demand for new diploma and degree programmes. To help address the skills gap, in 2024 the government launched six new technical and vocational training academies including in the arts, tourism, media, and industry and technology.
Women In Education
As a result of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has made significant strides in recent years. The participation of women in higher education has increased, with women’s graduation rates surpassing those of their male counterparts. In 2023 the percentage of women students in higher education earning an undergraduate or postgraduate degree reached 53.9% of the total student population, according to government figures. Saudi Arabia is home to the world’s largest women-only university, PNU, with more than 34,000 women enrolled. The public university offers 26 diploma programmes, 82 undergraduate and 23 post-graduate degrees, focusing on health care and medical sciences. The majority of Saudi women students in tertiary education, like their male counterparts, are enrolled at the undergraduate level. Across all universities, 502,114 women students were enrolled in undergraduate studies and 28,619 in graduate programmes as of 2023.
Labour Force
More Saudi women attending higher education and TVET programmes has translated into significant shifts in the labour market. In the first quarter of 2025 the women’s labour force participation rate in the Kingdom reached 36.3%, nearly double the 19.7% rate of 2018. The government’s most recent Vision 2030 report for 2024 highlights that, during the second quarter of 2024, Saudi Arabia led the G20 in women’s labour force participation growth, underscoring the growing role of Saudi women in the workforce.
Furthermore, since 2017 Saudi Arabia has experienced the fastest reduction of barriers to women’s access to labour markets due to the advance of social and economic reforms, according to a World Bank 2024 report. The changes included removing restrictions on guardianship and allowing women to drive in 2018, extending maternity leave to 12 weeks with full pay, providing incentives for businesses to hire women, and the rise of remote work and online study. The expansion of government-funded child care, like the Qurrah programme, has made it easier for women to enter both higher education and the workforce. In addition, government programmes such as the Parallel Training Initiative, designed to prepare women for the labour market, have offered specialised training and upskilling to more than 122,000 job-seeking women through over 800 training programmes since 2016, while the number of academic scholarships for women has increased. These initiatives have helped raise graduation rates and workforce participation, contributing to women’s unemployment rates declining from 34.5% in 2016 to 11.9% in 2024.
Despite such progress, the unemployment rate among women remains higher than that of men. In the second quarter of 2025 the unemployment rate for Saudi women increased to 11.3%, while for Saudi men the unemployment rate increased to 4.3% during the same period. The overall unemployment rate among Saudi citizens rose to 6.8% during the second quarter of 2025. Despite this increase, unemployment is near a record low compared to the 2018 rate of 12.8%, partly due to the increase in women’s employment. Despite the overall progress, youth unemployment among Saudis aged 15-24 remains a challenge for the country and is higher than the national unemployment average.
Outlook
Saudi Arabia’s significant focus and expenditures in the education and training sectors reflects its ongoing commitment to building a competitive, knowledge-based economy under Vision 2030 to match labour market needs. Across all education levels, digital learning is expected to grow as the Kingdom prioritises digital skills and literacy. Government investment in early childhood education, school infrastructure upgrades and curriculum diversification to raise student attainment will continue, while in higher education upskilling and the establishment of new universities and educational facilities aim to raise the competitiveness of Saudi universities and offer more diverse learning. Amid demographic shifts and regulatory changes that will open doors for private investment, the private education sector is primed for expansion at all levels.
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