The Ministry of Education' initiatives to improve general education have improved learning outcomes and improved the ability of the general education sector in the kingdom to compete internationally in light of the endless interest and support from the Custodian of the Holy Mosques and His Highness the Crown Prince given to the education sector. The Ministry has worked hard to achieve a lot in 2022 and keep improving in the global performance indices in the field of education.
The Kingdom was ranked third in the index of the total public expenditure on education, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2022, as the total budget of the Ministry of Education for the past fiscal year amounted to over 185 billion riyals. This constitutes 19.4% of sectoral allocations in the government budget in 2022, and reflects the vision of the wise leadership in caring for education and its role in building the human being and developing the country.
Saudi Arabia moved up five ranks in the Human Development Index (HDI) issued by the United Nations Development Program report 2022. Saudi education achieved advanced results in a number of international indices for the education sector, as it advanced in 16 indices of global competitiveness in the education sector, according to the world competitiveness yearbook 2022.
The Ministry of Education continued its development initiatives and programs this year. About 1,148 educational projects were implemented in the regions and governorates, accommodating 706,507 male and female students. The early childhood project and the admission of children to the kindergarten stage were also expanded by providing more than 400,000 seats for kindergarten registration this year. Additionally, the ministry of education also created 11,547 new teaching jobs, the largest number of jobs in the government sector since the pandemic.
The Ministry's initiatives in the areas of literacy and continuing education led to a 3.7 % drop in the alphabetical illiteracy. Yanbu Industrial City, the second city in the Kingdom after Jubail Industrial City, was recognized by UNESCO as an international learning city. In addition, over 158 thousand volunteers were involved in the education sector.
The Saudi model in providing distance education and e-learning tools has received many international acclaims. The most recent of which is the study issued by the World Bank, as well as the UNICEF for the Arab Gulf States' acclaim. In addition, the “Madrasati” platform model was chosen to be documented among the four best international models in distance education by UNESCO. In addition, the Kingdom's students won 88 prizes and medals in the Olympiads and international competitions.
