Riyadh’s School Landscape Is Changing Fast—Here’s What Families Need to Know

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In a recent webinar, Aamynah Nagji, Bennett Global Team Lead and Senior Education Consultant, offers insight into the rapid evolution of the school landscape in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including trends in enrollment growth, curriculum expansion, and shifts in gender segregation policies.

The education landscape in Riyadh is undergoing a rapid transformation, with significant implications for families considering relocation to the region. Until recently, some local curriculum schools had very low enrollment numbers—even in the single digits. But that is quickly changing.

A surge of new international schools is reshaping the options available to families. British curriculum schools are entering the market in large numbers, alongside new IB programs and even a Singaporean international school. This diversification offers families more choices than ever, especially those seeking alignment with globally recognized academic standards.

Many of these schools are still growing organically, starting with younger year levels and expanding each academic year. Others are rebranded institutions that have experienced explosive growth, in some cases increasing from 350 to 1,000 students in just a few months. The pace of change on the ground is striking—and reflects a broader commitment to modernizing education offerings in the region.

Another significant shift involves evolving gender segregation policies. While traditional international schools in Riyadh have long operated as co-education environments, many other schools—especially those offering international curriculums with a local cultural emphasis—have historically been gender-segregated. However, that is now changing. Newer schools are increasingly opting for co-ed models at the primary or elementary level, with some even exploring full co-ed learning environments as they scale up.

For globally mobile families, these changes present both exciting opportunities and important considerations. As the region continues to expand its international education offerings, understanding the pace and nature of these shifts is essential to making informed school placement decisions.

Based in Dubai, Aamynah Nagji is a veteran independent education consultant, specializing in supporting families relocating to the Middle East, and also serves as a Global Team Lead (GTL).

Aamynah holds a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India, and received her certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst from AIMR, USA. She is also a Certified Leader and Life Coach who speaks fluent Hindi and Urdu.

Over the years, Bennett International Education Consultancyhas worked with hundreds of corporations across the globe, many of them Fortune 500 companies, providing domestic and international school advisement & placement services - preschool through university - to the dependents of relocating employees. In addition to education placement, our team provides customized consulting for corporations with a range of education issues: education policy writing & benchmarking, tuition studies, group move advisement & planning, and remote education solutions.