SAUDI Arabia announced a record budget of expenditures for fiscal year 2010, totalling more than $146 billion, with more than a quarter of the funds designated for education. The 2010 educational funding represents a 13 per cent increase over 2009.

“The allocation of SR137.6 billion ($36.7 billion) for education and training emphasises the government’s desire to invest in human development, which is the core of real progress,” said Dr Ali Al Attiyah, Deputy Minister of Higher Education.
The Education Ministry’s 2010 budget is set to fund the King Abdullah Project for Development of Public Education, the creation of 1,200 new schools and the completion of more than 3,000 school buildings already under construction. The Ministry of Higher Education’s budget includes funding for the construction of four new universities and the expansion of existing ones, increasing student enrollments at institutes of higher learning and scholarship programmes abroad.
Currently, the Saudi government offers more than 60,000 scholarships to Saudi students around the world. The record budget will also include funds to sponsor 5,000 additional students to study abroad in 2010 as part of the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme.
The kingdom’s ratio of 15 students to every teacher is one of the lowest in the world.