Saudi Arabia honors 659 schools for excellence as education system reaches new benchmarks

Updated 14 min 2 sec ago

November 5, 2026 00:11

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education and the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) recognized 659 public, private, and international schools for attaining the highest standards under the National Program for School Evaluation, Classification, and Accreditation.

Education Minister Yousef Al‑Benyan and ETEC Chairman Khalid bin Abdullah Al‑Sabti presented the awards at the closing ceremony of the third National Forum for School Excellence – Tamayuz 2026, held in Riyadh on Monday.

The program, which benchmarks and accredits schools, has driven substantial improvements across the Kingdom’s education landscape. More than 27,000 school principals have completed online self‑evaluation training, and over 2,500 evaluation specialists are actively engaged in the process.

Since early 2024, specialists have conducted extensive field work, visiting over 2,200 locations, recording more than 1.3 million classroom observations, holding over 1 million interviews with students and staff, completing 235,000 environmental assessments, and reviewing more than 230,000 school documents.

Al‑Benyan highlighted that the awards reflect a surge in high‑performing schools. He noted that the number of schools achieving excellence or progress levels has risen to roughly 14,000 in recent years, underscoring a marked enhancement of the Saudi education system.

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