RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority to establish an educational endowment portfolio.
SDAIA was represented by the national platform for charitable work, Ihsan.
The portfolio, which will support both general and university-level education, saw contributions on the first day reach SR440 million ($117.3 million), the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The MoU was signed by CEO of the Ihsan platform Ibrahim Al-Husseini and Director-General of the General Department of Social Responsibility and Voluntary Work Mishari Al-Juwairah.
Minister of Education Yousef Al-Benyan and Vice President of SDAIA Sami Muqeem were also present at the signing.
The deal aims to enhance cooperation between the ministry and Ihsan to activate a group of joint educational programs and initiatives, build a promising generation whose educational needs are met, and enable different segments of society and donors to contribute to supporting education programs and initiatives, including developing educational organizations related to data science and artificial intelligence.
Following the signing of the MoU, seven Saudi universities contributed to the portfolio with a total of SR320 million, with SR50 million each from Umm Al-Qura University, Jeddah University, Islamic University of Madinah, Dar Al-Hekma University, Hail University, and University of Tabuk, while Taif University donated SR20 million.
Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Khudair contributed SR70 million toward developing educational organizations and supporting capacity-building and academic programs directed at the non-profit sector.
The King Abdullah Humanitarian Foundation also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education to support the sustainability of university educational endowments to the amount of SR50 million as a contribution to the portfolio.
The proceeds were returned to the university endowments, bringing the total contributions to the portfolio through Ihsan to SR440 million.
Since its launch, the Ihsan platform’s donations have reached more than SR7 billion, benefiting over 4.8 million beneficiaries in various charitable and development fields, including over 1.6 million beneficiaries in the educational field.
