International Schools Directory

Another parent said that while the new arts being taught at schools might be good education is becoming unaffordable.

Private schools are considered vital to the expatriate community. Expatriates generally send their children to private schools that teach curriculums widely used or accepted in their home countries. Also, Saudi public schools, understandably, teach courses in Arabic. Children of expatriates who return to home countries later in life would be at a disadvantage if their primary school education were in Arabic, especially for college-bound students. Most private primary schools teach their courses in English.

Essam Al-Sharbini, an Egyptian accountant working in Jeddah over the past 15 years, said the fee increase was forcing him to consider putting his kids in Saudi public schools and home-schooling them on the Egyptian curriculum. “They can appear for the annual examination held at the Egyptian Consulate coinciding with the exams back home,” he said.

On the other hand Bashar Owais, a Syrian parent, said that in the light of the current unaffordable school fees he had no option but to send his children to his hometown in Syria to continue their primary education. He added that after he had sent them to Syria he could save up thousands of riyals, which in the previous years he used to spend on their tuition.

According to Moaz Abdullah, an Egyptian engineer working in Jeddah, the international schools that follow British or American curriculums tend to cost more.

Mostly Indians teach in schools that follow the British curriculum. They charge low fees compared to schools that follow the American curriculum, which are mostly staffed by Lebanese teachers.

Expatriates from Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon prefer to send their children to French international schools. On the other hand, expatriates from Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and Ethiopia send their children to English schools. The Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Filipino communities have their own international schools.

“The beginning of the academic year is a nightmare. I cancel my annual trip home to pay my four children’s school fees,” said Muhammad Al-Ameen, a Sudanese national working in the Sanaea district of Jeddah.

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