1.1 million foreign students are enrolled in KSA’s public schools

Public schools in the Kingdom have been opened in the last few years to foreign students, mostly from countries affected by war, including Yemen and Syria. (SPA file photo)

JEDDAH: The Saudi Ministry of Education said that 1.1 million foreign students are enrolled in public schools in the Kingdom, where they study for free, just like their Saudi counterparts.
According to ministry statistics, the total number of students registered in the Nour public education system is 6 million.
Of the 1.1 million foreign students, 252,842 are Yemeni nationals, 131,297 are Syrians, 41,209 are Burmese, and the remaining are of different nationalities, including Palestinians, Egyptians, Sudanese and other Asian and Arab nationalities. Syrian and Yemeni students have been welcomed in Saudi schools due to the ongoing conflicts and security instability in their countries.
Members of these communities are not treated as refugees, but rather as brothers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sept. 12, 2015.
The Kingdom has dealt with them based on its religious and humanitarian beliefs, and has received nearly 2.5 million Syrian nationals in since the start of the conflict. They are all treated with dignity, and offered safety, stability and freedom of movement.
Hundreds of thousands of these community members who wish to stay in the Kingdom have been granted legal residency and are treated just like other residents when it comes to access to free health care, labor market and free education, as per the royal order issued in 2012.
Similar to Syrians, Yemenis are granted a 6-month visit that can be extended before they are granted legal residence.
Syrian resident Abed Al-Fifi said the services offered by Saudi Arabia to the Syrians are unparalleled as their children study in schools for free and are treated like Saudi students, with no discrimination, by the departments of education, teachers or students.
His son, Nader, has made many friends in middle school, he said, thanking the government of Saudi Arabia for its constant support.
Syrian resident Mohammed Abed said his daughter Aleen studies in elementary school in Al-Safaa neighborhood and was warmly welcomed by her teachers and the school administration when they found out that her family had escaped the war in Syria. He said they even offered her mother full support, including school supplies, but he refused because he was able to find work in the Kingdom and was earning enough to meet his family’s needs.
He expressed appreciation for the school’s directors and his daughter’s teachers who support her and follow up on her progress, as well as for the government and people of the Kingdom.